Ioana Vreme Moser’s »Arsenic Ballerinas« is a long-term research project that turns to the mineralogy of cosmetics to transmit an uncharted part of radio history.
A lipstick shares the shape and materiality of a bullet, sometimes coloured with radium, or with lead, and most times hiding in a brass shell. During the Second World War, lipstick tubes were melted into bullets, and bullets became lipstick tubes. Lead, arsenic, and mercury became shared and favoured materials. Found in early radio experiments and now in our computing devices, these heavy metals slowly spread from our lips to our technologies. Can the inherited toxicity of one’s lipstick become a semiconductor that receives radio transmissions? And if so, which transmissions would it receive?
In this exhibition, Vreme Moser presents the project in three components: the newly-commissioned Arsenic Ballerinas radio sound installation with prepared lipsticks, FM transmitters, and receivers; a namesake research box which showcases the pathway from lipsticks to electronic radio frequency circuitry; and the Bad Girl Organ sound object with prepared lipsticks, which follows the decay chain of uranium to lead.
Arsenic Ballerinas
Radio sound installation (prepared lipsticks, FM transmitters and receivers), 2026
A swarm of resonating radio lipsticks holds the charged instant before a bullet breaks the air. Tilted and arranged in formation, these »Arsenic Ballerinas« become projectiles that expose the intertwined histories of YL networks (YL or »young lady« operators is the term/code for amateur female radio operators regardless of age), wartime transformations, and the heavy-metal mineralogy embedded in cosmetics and radio circuitry alike.
The lipsticks become FM radio receivers, concealment agents with their anatomy functioning as electronic components. The metal shells resonate and shield the circuit, and the lipsticks themselves embed antennas. Piercing through radio static, a multitude of transmissions disclose intimate events of connection and resistance through mineral hardware. Pointing towards the ears, the lipsticks bombard the space with noise.
Bad Girl Organ
Sound Object with prepared Lipsticks, 2025
Is my Lipstick a Semiconductor? In the installation »Bad Girl Organ,« lipsticks oscillate between bad morale, toxicity, Barbie-centric beauty norms, and resistance movements. From Rhodopis Serviteur (one of the first lipsticks cast in a bullet shape) to »The Kiss of Death« (a KGB agent’s pistol concealed as a tube of lipstick), lipsticks and lead have been entangled through history. Seven historical heavy metal recipes are cast and prepared with their elements on top. Mercury oxide, arsenopyrites, minium-red lead and iron oxides are set in oscillation. Their semiconductive properties conduct and deflect currents to noise.
Arsenic Ballerinas research box
Sketches, documentation, artefacts and prototypes from the research, 2025-2026
The research box showcases the pathway from Vreme Moser’s lipsticks to electronic radio frequency circuitry. Pigments mingle inside the vitrine among bullet-like Elisabeth Arden lipsticks, moulds, crystal radio pieces, and drawings. Amongst these research artefacts, heavily performed archival instruments from the beauty salon belonging to the artist’s performance alter-ego, Coquetta, convolute with their insides out.
Technical assistance: Dorian Largen
Transmission assistance: Martin Kuentz
Special thanks to: Eunice Martins, Mariska de Groot
Research supported by: Recherchestipendium für Alte Musik, Neue Musik und Klangkunst 2025, Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Gesellschaftlichen Zusammenhalt
Historical Lipsticks with the support of: Tasos & Angelos Gkousis
The »Arsenic Ballerinas« radio sound installation is commissioned by CTM Festival, DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program, and iii - instrument inventors initiative.
CTM 2026 Exhibition
24.1. – 22.3.2026 | Free entry
daadgalerie & Kunstraum Kreuzberg