This video explores Plotkin’s interest in the status of the artist as a (pop) star. Looking back on her previous works, they seem to echo the classic evolution of a real life pop star, of the kind portrayed on “the way to the top” VH1 documentaries. In her previous video works Plotkin appeared as a teenage girl posing in front of the mirror, a star wannabe on a p2p website, and a model in what looks like as a cross between an infomercial and a music video. In Bug 2Small, for the first time, Plotkin herself is almost completely absent from the video, making her brief appearance just before the music starts. It is this very absence that makes her presence felt on each and every frame, mediated through the surrogates she directed to mimic her movements. The music video – complete with her trademark logo, and her “people” – establishes Plotkin’s star status as an indisputable fact.

Ariela Plotkin (1976) born in Israel. Lives and works in Tel Aviv.

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