QUI ÊTES-VOUS, PAULA DE LA PLAYA?

E A R L Y H I S T O R Y

Paula de la Playa was born in early 2011, a child of Rupaul’s Drag Race marathons, repeated

viewings of Paris is Burning, and bathroom mirror selfies. These initial performances were

spontaneous and informal, unconstrained by rigorous theoretical aspirations. They took place

in traditional spaces of feminine aesthetic expression, bedrooms and bathrooms, environments

that facilitated total freedom to experiment with identity construction using the raw materials

and vocabulary of fashion and beauty. These performances were private and ephemeral—

documentation was limited and in many cases non-existent—- and centred around

appropriating a visual language hyperbolised femininity.

FOLLOW PAULA DE LA PLAYA!

YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXWkfpKJoXHeSbIW7er6D_A

Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/pauladelaplaya/

Earliest known photo of Ms. de la Playa, 2011

Courtesy of PaulaDeLaPlaya, via Instagram, 2016

been an accepted art form for centuries upon centuries, so despite the multitude of critics, I’m

excited by using the selfie as a medium for art.

Q: What’s next for you, Paula?

A: I am going to continue to tell my story via social media and hopefully engage my audience! I

think a loyal social media following is the key to success in 2016. Once you have enough

followers there is really no limit to what you can achieve—a modelling or acting career, a

fashion and cosmetics line, a fragrance, a musical album—these are all things I can envision

for in my future. A quality personal brand is really the most valuable thing you can own, so I’m

going to put all my focus into building that. I want to do live performances whenever I can,

because I think it’s dangerous to only exist in a virtual capacity and forget the material world!

No matter how much technology becomes a part of our lives, we are still physical beings with

senses capable of perceiving things beyond images on a screen.

First public appearance by Ms. de la Playa, 2011

social media and reality television. Speaking of reality television— a huge fascination for me

has been the shift from concept based shows, like Survivor or (my personal favourite) The

Simple Life, to personality driven shows like our beloved Keeping up with the Kardashians.The

plots are completely driven by a voyeuristic, yet mundane narrative of daily life and

interpersonal relationships. This model has translated itself into seamlessly into social media

feeds, giving the egalitarian opportunity for any enterprising individual to become the star of

their own reality show. I love that the Warholian “15 minutes of fame” concept has become so

eerily accurate!

Q: Is fashion empowering to women? And what about selfies?

A: These are very complicated questions and I don’t think they can ever be definitively

answered. Fashion is extremely important to me and I think it can absolutely be empowering,

however the current system is one that privileges wealth and a very narrow standard of beauty.

I think the internet has started the movement toward independent and diverse perspectives on

fashion, which I hope will be a lasting change and not just a fleeting trend. As for selfies, they

also have a certain capacity for empowerment by merging the roles of photographer and the

subject into one, thus shifting traditional power structures of image creation. Photography (like

most art) has been largely male dominated and self portraiture arose in the 1960’s and 1970’s

a feminist reclamation of the camera, so I think the selfie phenomenon actually has a very rich

art historical context which is often overlooked. The very act of taking a selfie is kinetic,

gestural, and performative! I love that it has become the accepted norm for women (and now

really everyone) to control the reproduction of their image in this manner. Self portraiture has

Later in 2011, Paula de la Playa made her social debut in Austin, Texas, USA. This marked a

significant evolution in persona—a shift from static character existing to the outside world in a

very limited capacity through digital images, to a dynamic, embodied living personality. During

this period, the Paula de la Playa look became more defined—wigs became an absolute

necessity, dramatic high glamour make-up was favoured, and sequinned dresses were a must.

These performances utilised clothing and cosmetics to establish a “self as other”, born of a

desire to escape from the constraints of identity, yet additionally existing as satirical reaction to

societal standards of beauty and femininity.

R E B I R T H

Exact dates of Paula de la Playa’s withdrawal from the public eye are unknown. There has

been a vast amount of speculation pertaining to the reasons for her hiatus. Because sources

close to de la Playa are notoriously tight-lipped, it has been nearly impossible to separate fact

from fiction. In 2013, it was reported de la Playa had suffered a nervous breakdown and was

recovering at an undisclosed location in the Sonoran Desert. Others disputed this claim and

insisted de la Playa had moved to Mexico City to become a radical feminist activist. This

publication remains neutral as to the veracity of these or any other assertions.

Nearly half a decade later, Paula de la Playa reemerged suddenly and unexpectedly, in the true

spirit of 2016, on social media. The following is an exclusive feature, her first and to date only

interview since returning to the public eye.

Ms. de la Playa at work, 2016 (Courtesy of Charlotte Snuverink)

Q: What do you hope to accomplish with your performances?

A: I try to avoid setting goals or specifying outcomes for my performance work. I prefer to let

things evolve organically. Thus far, I have been documenting my experiments with makeup by

taking a massive amount of self photos and videos using the Photo Booth application on my

computer. I am interested in the virtual capture and manipulation of my image. Even though I

am comfortable “being myself” in “reality”, I have found this self-documentation extremely

disconcerting! Initially these performances were intended as a critical parody of blogging

culture. While I still retain an element of ironic humour in my work, I now feel a sense of

reverence for YouTube “beauty gurus” who are able to speak confidently at a camera for 20-30

minutes, while flawlessly contouring their cheekbones. I deeply respect anyone who manages

to procure a flattering picture of themselves on a daily basis and post it publicly on Instagram. It

is difficult to authentically replicate the intimacy created when the private screen functioning as

a mirror is shared publicly. One of my intentions for this performance series was to try on the

role of a “vlogger” which has proved a more difficult task than I had imagined. There is

something very uncanny about talking “at” a digital reflection of yourself. Perhaps it requires a

level of “selfie acceptance” which I have not yet achieved.

Q: Who and what has influenced Paula de la Playa?

A: I love the Kardashian/Jenner dynasty for their ability to create spectacle and monetise their

social media dominance. They are brands before they are people, their image is more valuable

than any of their (innumerable) material possessions. They have a near omniscience over

fashion trends and tremendous cultural influence, all because of their precise manipulation of

Courtesy of PaulaDeLaPlaya, via Instagram, 2016

Q: What prompted your return to the public eye? Where have you been all these years?

A: I recently completed a long form performance where I attempted to fully reject conventional

beauty standards and distance myself completely from the male gaze. This was largely inspired

by feminist art history, from Hannah Wilke and Ana Mendieta to Lydia Lunch and Kathleen

Hannah. Performing under the name Sallie Poon, I essentially tried to make my body appear

contrary to societal standards and behave in an entirely unbecoming way. I was watching a lot

of John Waters films at this time, which made the concept of vulgarity highly appealing and

romantic, perhaps even religious to me.

In the past year, feminism has become an extremely hot mainstream issue, which to me, has

made the term lose a lot of meaning. I am trying to make work that is less overtly feminist and

perhaps a bit more nuanced. However, I want to continue using my body as the medium for my

performances. Reemerging as Paula de la Playa is in a way a direct binary opposition to the

work I was doing previously. I am now attempting to transform myself into the ideal of female

beauty.

Q: Why did you choose social media, namely Instagram and YouTube, as a platform for

your comeback?

A: I am extremely fascinated by the Internet and how it is shaping our culture! It is terrifying and

exciting at the same time. While I use social media fairly frequently, I really am not that

comfortable with it—I value my privacy and I am quite wary of trendy new apps. I am by no

means a selfie aficionado and I find frequent, overly personal sharing on social media quite

embarrassing. Despite my personal reservations, I am intrigued by the emergent concept of

social media fame, especially in the realms of fashion and beauty blogging. I started my

Instagram account and YouTube channel as performances in and of themselves, to see if I

could mould myself into a social media star, or at least the appearance of one.

Q: What is the relationship between you, social media, and the fashion system?

A: Fashion is a central aspect my performances— since clothing is such an integral part of

identity expression. The way that you dress says as much (or maybe even more) about you

than how you act or what you say, this is especially true on the internet! Social media is entirely

about creating a visual representation of your personal brand, so fashion plays an inseparable

role. I’m very interested in how social media acts as a a sort of meta-medium for identity

construction. You can now not only curate your image through clothing, makeup, and hair, but

you can also control and augment the image of that image. Successful social media users

essentially create an appealing ongoing autobiographical narrative. This is often criticised as

vapid or vain, but I think these skills deserve more credit than they generally receive. Because

celebrity culture has always been intimately linked with the fashion system, a new sort of

subsystem has been created with social media stars (aka “influencers” in marketing speak)

driving fashion consumption. This has made things infinitely more complicated, nebulous, and

fragmented. All in all, I think it has corrupted the democratising potential social media once

appeared to have. Yes, the internet does theoretically give anyone the platform to express their

point of view on fashion, but ultimately it has largely enforced hegemonic beauty standards and

vacuous consumer capitalism. However, I do remain optimistic that internet still has the

potential to catalyse revolutionary changes in the fashion system.