Point of View

These collages examine various cultural assumptions, especially stereotypical perceptions surrounding female beauty and desirability and the emphasis on youth and thinness as a prescription for beauty.

By rewording various phrases and ideas in a humorous manner, I hope to encourage people to reassess their expectations and to question cultural values. These phrases are conveyed as reversals of pre-conceived stereotypical ideals. While we culturally value losing weight, my subjects yearn to gain weight. While we disdain growing old, my subjects are excited to do so. While we may seek happiness in material wealth, my subjects acknowledge that they have enough belongings and that they want more than just more fashionable clothes. While we may idolize models and athletes, my subjects disdain such professions. And so on.

I hope that the absurdity of these collages encourages viewers to reconsider some of the cultural assumptions that I am responding to. If you really think about it, it is really no less bizarre to want to lose twenty-five pounds for one's wedding as it is to want to gain that much weight, but, since it is often assumed that being thin is better, the desire to lose weight is viewed as a socially acceptable goal while the desire to gain weight is regarded as silly or unrealistic. Such double standards hold true in many situations wherein a person tries to shape him/herself to fit a prescribed role - both desires are actually quite absurd but one is deemed as acceptable while the other isn't acknowledged or is deemed as deviant or abnormal.

Here are some photos of my solo show, Point of View.