Lipstick on the Lido #1–#4 is pure performance. In the staged photo-based series, Suzy Lake assumes the character of film star Dirk Bogarde, playing the character of Gustav von Aschebach, in Visconti’s adaptation of Thomas Mann’s novel Death in Venice, but as a woman. Part of Lake’s “Beauty and the Aging Body” portfolio, Lipstick on the Lido ruminates on the social constructs of youthful beauty and the very real aging female body. “And what do you do?” Vito Acconci once asked her. “I make things,” Lake replied.1 Groundbreaker and mentor, Lake has made things for over five decades.

In many ways, Lipstick on the Lido coalesces and brings forward what Lake has made before—a shoring up, so to speak, of Lake imagery. As she writes about the period within which Lipstick falls, “during the 1990s, my work with the body moved away from its original political alignment to a quiet empowerment. Yet, a tension remains in these works through a palimpsest of the figure’s past. This selection of work encompasses several series that celebrate attributes of ageing, maturity and experience.”2 While critics long described Lake as a feminist artist, she did not claim that artistic identity until later in her career. At the forefront of feminist practice, Lake stages her body to expose gendered power structures. Her persona returns to the makeup of earlier work, tracing movements of her mouth while applying lipstick. The shoot took place in Venice, with another artist and one of Lake’s former students Sara Angelucci assisting. We see the lipstick on her teeth, the compromised glam. Lake wears the wig of “Suzy Spice,” another persona from Forever Young (2000). There is a sneaking-up-from-behind perspective but also, perhaps, a knowledge of being viewed.

1. Suzy Lake, “Introducing Suzy Lake,” in Introducing Suzy Lake (London, UK: Black Dog Publishing, 2014), 15.
2. Suzy Lake, “Beauty and the Aging Body: Artist Statement,” www.suzylake.ca.