Minka Pestkowski

Sacred Heart College, VCE Art Making and Exhibiting

Misidentified 2025
installation comprising wigs, mannequin and video documentation of an interdisciplinary performance featuring sound, spoken word poetry, photography and stop motion animation; duration 11:24 mins

Artist statement:

Stick, poke and paste
Select a new smile
Patch up and resew
Layer and tile
Memorise the lines
Don’t let them see
That entrenched below the wigs
Lies the real me

Misidentified encapsulates the universal tendency to mask ourselves in order to feel seen. Drawing upon 20th-century counterculture, the artwork uses wigs as a motif, garish cosmetics, and expressive body language to convey adolescent experiences of conformity. By stimulating an immersive experience through stop motion animation (including over 2,500 photographs), installation, spoken word poetry, suspenseful audio, and lighting, the performance conjures the unease felt during moments of masking. The work prompts its audience to consider the artificiality of their own identity construction, and the concept of authenticity in contemporary society.