I, Melania is Paula and Chuck’s first project as Varjack-Lowry. Using Melania Trump as an avatar of an ‘acceptably’ foreign woman, they will work together and with participants to create video and performance exploring their relationship to being “foreign”.
What are the ways a foreign woman can assimilate and make herself more welcome? How is this open to some foreigners and not others? When does the question of “Where are you from?” feel like an attack, or an invitation?
Despite her public role, Melania Trump has kept most of her views private. With so little to go on, the press often projects possible narratives within the subtext of what she says (and wears). Exploring the journey of Melania Trump from her home country and into the public sphere, Varjack-Lowry will compare her narrative to theirs, to learn how and if they can be acceptably foreign and female.
This is a sharing of developing work.
