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crinoline on wh€els can either be controlled by the woman hertelJ or by som€one slanding outsrde,<br />
usually a man. lt j5 both an jtem of clothing and a machine; an automaton, which gives th€ us€r<br />
greater lreedom (when controlled bythe woman) or gubjectJ her to the power and (ontrolof another<br />
person. This work may of cours€ b€ interpreled a5 a metaphor for Jemale dependency, whi'h it har<br />
certainly be€n, especially in North America, where some (ritics tend to attach a leminist labelto <strong>Jana</strong><br />
<strong>Sterbak</strong>'s work. (7) But Semote Control can also be regarded as a pleasure ma(hine, harking back to<br />
the gr€at balls of the ninete€nth (entury where the women appeared to {loat effortlessly around the<br />
dance lloor5 in enormout gowns, which never permitted a glimpse of their {eet The art ot the period<br />
captured thir image, as demonnrated in Monel's 1867 pajnting Femmes al'/ ./ard,n and in Winther<br />
halter's court portraits ofthe l85Os and 1860s, whi(h includ€ the portrait ofthe Empress Eug€nie<br />
Remote control contains definite referencesto the golden age ofthe Austro-Hungarian empire, when the<br />
viennese waltz enabled women, also in Pragug to float across highly Polished parquet Jloors, admittedly<br />
l€d by a man, but by a man who wae also a partner.<br />
<strong>Jana</strong> <strong>Sterbak</strong> ha5 ako prcduced a male version of the bachelor machine, the thr€e Sisyphus works:<br />
Sisyphus, lgg1, Sisyphus tt, 1991 and Sisyphus !,1993. The Sisyphus myth isone ofthe richest in Gre€k<br />
mythology. He appears as shepherd, as the king ot Corinth (according to some sour'es he was granted<br />
command ot the Greek inhmus by Medea) and as a parti(ularlv cunning and craftv man - possiblv the<br />
reason why he is sometimes reputed to be th€ {.ther of Odysseus He cheats and fools the gocls'<br />
includjng zeus, on numerous oc(asions, but finally he i5 (ondemned to spend eternitv rolling a large<br />
rock uo the mountain. When th€ rock eventually r€ach€t the top it automati(ally rollt down again<br />
and Sisyphus has to ttart over<br />
Alb€rt Camus wat also inspired by thit myth. He used it as the point of departure, not only Jor lhe<br />
book of the same name, but for large portions o{ his literary oeuvre, which roughly summarised<br />
deals with the fact that lile is absurd, but it has to be lived. The element o, the absurd it aho strong<br />
in Kafka, with whote works lana sterbak is oJ course familiat And it is this very element oJ the<br />
absurd which is so strongly €vident in her Sisyphus This i5 an inverted (rinolin€, which har be(ome a<br />
cage, but also a kind of armour, a form of prot€ction, which, however, i5 rendered unstable by the<br />
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