The duo presentation of Melanie Bonajo and Hester Oerlemans at the ArtPie 2010 is about individual identity. It tries to triumph over consequences of imperfections, presenting women as unglamorous. In a world where the ideal beauty and perfect size is more important than content. Where modern female still master their social identity as an imago. An imago defined by clothes and stuff.

The photo's 'Life/Size' of Hester Oerlemans imitates H&M advertising posters. Instead of skinny models the artist herself is posing: she squeezes herself into size 38 of the latest fashion. The posters were put up in bus stops around Berlin and announced the upcoming exhibition in Künstlerhaus Bethanien.
Hester Oerlemans lives and works in Berlin and Amsterdam more info http://www.hesteroerlemans.com

Melanie Bonajo's serie 'furniture bondage' involved photographing friends, whom she turned into 'living sculptures' Bonajo puts uniquely female subjects in precarious positions, encumbered with household junk, the objects of everyday life. About her work, Melanie says, 'The furniture bondage series speaks of the impossible need to create a perfect harmony with the world around us by exploring seemingly opposing elements together: a choreography of magnetic fields lingering between attachment/detachment, bonded/liberated, subject/object.'
Melanie Bonajo is currently a resident at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam.