Displayed in a grid as if on a rack in a souvenir shop, Brasil nativo, Brasil alienígena (Native Brazil, Alien Brazil) features store-bought postcards, on the left, that depict the Bororo people of Brazil. While the images purport to represent everyday life, their subjects’ poses suggest the direction of a photographer constructing “exotic” scenes for commercial consumption. In a performance of her own, the artist, who is of European descent, captured herself re-enacting each postcard’s scene in corresponding images on the right. Photographed while Geiger was living in Rio de Janeiro under military dictatorship (1964–85), her critical mirroring of the postcards questioned how the terms “native” and “alien” (or “other”) were visualized in popular culture at the time.
Gallery label from 2023