LIPSTRIKE
live recording of online performance
digital video (1280 x 720), sound, color, 10’, 2021 [2016], France
Created by Chloé Desmoineaux
Originally created in 2016, Lipstrike is an online performance in Counter-Strike that uses an unusual device as a weapon: a lipstick. Each time the artist applies cosmetics on her lips, her gun unleashes a torrent of bullets. She broadcast her performances on Twitch, receiving thousands of snarky comments by angry gamers, which were eventually collected and published in a limited edition booklet. Five years later, the artist updated the original iteration for VRAL. One question remains: has anything changed since #Gamergate?
Interested in tactical media, hacking culture, and cyberfeminism, Chloé Desmoineaux creates media experiments through performances, installations and hijacked video games. She is especially concerned about the place given to women as well as dissident and “minority” people in the video game industry and she tries to create spaces of visibility and reflection to discuss these issues. She is a member of the Freesson collective which focuses on supporting creative practices, electronic music and organizing events and workshops around digital art and culture. Co-organizer of the Art Games Demos (2017-2919) initiative with Isabelle Arvers, Desmoineaux has curated several exhibitions about the culture, aesthetics and ideology of gaming in the past decade. Her work has been exhibited internationally. She led several workshops on alternative controllers, glitch, interactive animations, and video games. Desmoineaux lives and works in Marseille.
