BARBARA BENISH

Shown at Manes Gallery, Prague (1995), as part of the “Dost Vody pro Jeden Kouřen- Water Enough for One Root” exhibition. Several enormous, silken parachute “flowers” floated in the iconic gallery space, overlooking the River Vltava in Prague. The title, a purposeful mis-gendered word for “Conquistador”, upends the traditional male conjugation of the subject, rendering the conquering subject female. To further complicate the Spanish stereotype, the interior of the ‘flower’, is embedded with a frilly black petticoat, hinting at a flamenco-inspired peep show, while a video loop plays inside the secret  television set hanging upside down. The black and white image is a climb up into a narrow medieval staircase (shot in Prague’s Prasna Brana by filmmaker Cohen), further enticing the viewer inside. The outer layer of the ‘petals’, are hand-printed floral and arabesque designs, on a dyed green background of an enormous recycled parachute. The viewer must crouch down to get under the piece, and look inside the botanical ‘dress'. An implied voyeurism upends who is conquering whom, and at what cost.