Alexandra Marzella is an exhibitionist in the purist form – zits, bodily fluids, and armpit hair are all on full display. She is also beautiful, but eschews many of the expectations that society has for women: she rarely wears makeup, her eyebrows are unkempt and her selfies are the opposite of the countless duck face tragedies that bombard most social media feeds. Basically, she lets her freak flag fly and doesn’t give a fuck what you think. I first saw her perform at the Standard Hotel Miami back in December – in a little poolside bungalow – as part of an exhibition by Petra Collins presented by nightlife impresario André Saraiva. In a small, cramped room she writhed as she stripped naked, while getting water poured on her from friend, collaborator, and fellow artist India Menuez – Wet’s “Don’t Want to Be Your Girl” played in the background. It was exciting, erotic, strange and captivating – Marzella was not only stripping off her clothes, she was also stripping off parts of her soul and the audience was too close not to get splashed, which felt intrusive, but also incredibly viscerally engaging. It’s almost like Marzella has created a new form of art out of stripping. Indeed, Marzella, who is based in New York, is part of a new wave of young female artists that are using their youth, bodies, and femininity to say fuck you to the jock rapist culture that dominates the culture. Whatever she is doing, she should keep doing it. In the following text interview Marzella talks about her initial inclination to shun art, her time as a cheerleader and her take on nudity in performance art. Click here to read the interview.
