Copyright 2017. Tatiana Koroleva. All Rights Reserved.
Dress for Success references the structure of a corporate training. Topless and with my face covered in twenty dollar bills, I present a lecture on how to succeed in the corporate environment. On the notepad in front of me are suggestions for future employees: “develop a marketable persona,” “promote yourself,” “establish profitable relationships,” etc.
My presentation is an “experience sharing” by a corporate priestess who possesses a “sacred” knowledge on how to sell oneself in the most profitable way. As the performance progresses, the professional talk turns into ecstatic ritual. I cover myself in chocolate and spray golden glitter all over my body, repeating names of Gods of wealth from various religious traditions (God of wealth is Buddhist, Vedic and other traditions are worshiped with offerings of sweets). My ritual develops as a sequence of ritualistic movements culminating with a possession dance. Covered in money, chocolate and gold I sing over and over again “Annuit cœptis,” a motto written above the thirteen-layered pyramid on the back of the dollar bill.
Dress for Success encourages a collision between the disparate worlds of corporate business and religious ritual in order to produce new critical yet playful interpretations.
DRESS FOR SUCCESS
ITINERANT, Performance Art Festival, New York, USA, 2015