To me, the role of the artist is to create the question; the role of my
audience is to come up with an answer, and each answer will be exceptionally
unique to each viewer who chooses to engage.
I ask myself, “Why are people so caught up in the amassing of material
possessions?” “What is motivating people to believe that the accumulation of
belongings can somehow enhance their overall lifestyle?” “Why do we put so
much emphasis on looking a certain way?”
I begin with questions like these and choose mediums such as
photography, video and posters to create striking imagery according to my
concept. For example, in a recent piece I used design and digital manipulation of
photography to create a line of advertisements for fake products that promise to
enhance your life simply by making you look physically flawless. With these
posters, I want my audience to consider what they think they can gain just by
looking different, or “better”.
My work asks questions about identity and societal influence on human
beings, and takes a look into what people put their worth in. I choose to work with
photo and video because of the sort of irony it poses as it contrasts the negative
effects of media influence, many of which comes to the viewer by way of
television and movies. In other words, the presentation of my ideas will be in the
same form of the object of ridicule. Primarily a digital artist, my work exists largely
as photography and video. These particular mediums allow me to record material
from real life and manipulate it in a way that makes my viewers rethink what they
already know, to take a critical look at the world around them, reflect and look
inward. I want to make the implicit be explicit, to take what I see around me and
expose it for what it really is. Ironically, viewers will be influenced by what they
see in my videos and imagery, which is criticizing how much we are influenced
by what we see.
No person is entirely satisfied with their appearances, and our society
seems to make people, especially young women, extremely susceptible to
placing a high value on looks and bear far too much weight on the minor flaws.
With this in mind, I have chosen a process which I believe will encapsulate the
shared hopes of people to be visually flawless. My goal is to tap into the viewer’s
deeper cravings, to show them that we all share an overwhelming and innate
desire to be desired. Being constantly bombarded with commercials, magazines,
television, and other forms of media, we are trapped by these unrealistic
expectations. There is a reason that trends and what is perceived as attractive
are constantly changing – they can never be satisfied, and we keep having to go
back to them. I hope that my work will make people realize that there are other
sources of worth apart from appearances and possessions.