“…STILL in the RUNNING towards BECOMING…”
Dana Dal Bo
10:00
“…STILL in the RUNNING towards BECOMING…” is a ten-minute video of re-enacted scenes from two popular American reality television shows; America’s Next Top Model and Toddlers & Tiaras. Both are about displayed beauty judged by “experts”.
The toddler, mother, and teen model are merged creating a generalized anxiety about beauty and self.
America’s Next Top Model started in 2003 and has 23 cycles (seasons) as of 2015. In each episode, during the final moments of elimination, two girls stand before host, Tyra Banks. One of them will be “sent home”. Tyra reveals who will continue on in the competition with the sentence, “[Name], Congratulations! You are still in the running towards becoming America’s Next Top Model.”
The idea of being still, while in the running, and moving towards becoming recalls the Deleuzian conundrum around identity, difference and repetition, and for me encapsulates a current emotional zeitgeist of instability and uncertainty; an in between.
The aesthetic of the video/audio is raw and sketchy, referencing the D.I.Y. quality of contemporary social media when used autobiographically as an extension of the self and constructor of identity.