Sur-Veil

Sur-veil, is an installation of lights and multiple etched and printed mirrors exploring the conflation of beauty, health, and happiness instigated by current cultural beauty standards. As today’s norm is to be camera ready at all time, it necessitates an intense, hyper self-awareness and self-surveillance that ultimately promotes an alienation of the self. While at the same time, the belief of “self-care” became synonymous with “self-optimization” and an obligatory form of empowerment where women are expected to perform a hyper-femininity that seems to counter current discourses on feminism. Although beauty aspirations are ephemeral, they are always infused with a kind of suffering where the motive remains the same, the pursuit of worthiness through the denial of pleasure.

Sur-veil, 2019. Mirrors, fluorescent lights, vaseline, body scrub 8 x 10 in & 8.5 x 1 in