everyday

The Uncanny In The Everyday: Beauty Consumption

A brief was set to produce a photographic series that reinterprets the surrealist strategy of de-familiarizing the familiar. It is about the marvelous and uncanny in the everyday life. I wanted to base this project into the residues of the social gender of femininity in everyday life, and after careful consideration and brainstorming on aspects and objects which associates with women; I have decided to focus on ‘beauty’.

As myself, most women spends thousands of pounds on things associated with ‘beauty’, which range from clothes, facial beauty, hair styles to body shaping, therefore I believe ‘beauty’ plays a big part of women’s everyday life. Stereotypical as it may sound but women are more image conscious than the male gender. The way women look and dress is important to them in how they portray themselves to the society.

I have chosen to focus specifically on make-up/cosmetics and beauty magazines. I believed this would be the most interesting topic to pursue as I can personally relate to this; it was very exciting to re-create.

In order for me to produce a successful project, a strong relevant research was carried out enabling me to pursue and further develop my ideas.

I researched into ‘Surrealism’, which I have acknowledged it is a style of art or literature seeking to express what is in the subconscious mind.

‘Surrealism, n. Pure psychic automatism, by which one proposes to express, either verbally, in writing, or by any other manner, the real functioning of thought. Dictation of thought in the absence of all control exercised by reason, outside of all aesthetic and moral preoccupation…” (Dictionary)

Some of the works of the Surrealist movement I came across were DADA lead by artist and protestor, Marcel Duchamp and DALI which all were my biggest and main influences towards my final outcome.

DADA evolved as a reaction to the chaotic and violence in the First World War. Experimentation and abstraction grew to create revolutionary forms of art representing that human beings are insane and can never be rational creatures. This movement was lead by Marcel Duchamp as he protested against society and aimed to show mainstream values as meaningless in the context of the “Great War.”

Surrealism grew following DADA in 1924 led by the theorist of Surrealism and poet, André Breton who was intrigued by DADA’s rejection of the “reason” that had led to the war and embraced irrationality and the unrestrained prompts of the subconscious as a road to a joyful freedom. Modern art continued to evolve under the influence of psychology and theories which illustrated Automatism and dreams.

Automatism allowed artists to produce their work with the use of the ‘unconsciousness’. For example, painter, Max Ernst produced collages, using photographs to create humorous yet disturbing images. This is what I was particularly inspired by.
The Postman Cheval, 1932 Collage by Max Ernst

I was strongly inspired DADA movement and Surrealism, particularly artists’ work by Marcel Duchamp and Dali.

The first image was re-created by Duchamp, a cheap reproduction of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, where he added with a pencil a comical moustache and goatee. He titled it as L.H.O.O.Q. which are the initials when pronounced in French, sounds like the French expression for “she has a nice ass.”

The second is the Face of Mae West (1935) by Salvador Dali’s surreal vision of outspoken Hollywood icon Mae West.

Taking inspirations from my research, I produced series of 4 images in relation to Surrealism. I wanted to achieve the style as Duchamp using objects and turning them into Surrealism such as the Mona Lisa.

I used magazine cut-outs from fashion/beauty spreads to create a photo-montage collage in attempt to create similar effect as Dali, but combining cosmetic tools relating to ‘beauty’ such as brushes eyelash curlers, false eyelashes, mascaras and lipstick.

The first image, I used magazine cut-outs of eyes and lips and arranged them in an abstract way onto a piece of white paper; I used colouring pencils to enhance certain features such as the eyelashes and also used false eyelashes. The whole image was aided with cosmetic tools.

The second image was done in a similar way using magazine cut-outs, this time a set of eye pupils and lips. Purple colouring pencil and black pen were used to create eye shadow make-up and set of false lashes was used to create a surreal illusion of lashes. I had to improvise and used a face concealer as I did not have a lipstick but I edited the desired colour on Photoshop once I had arranged the pieces together.

The third was slightly produced in a different method, I took a picture of a face I had found in the magazine and added pink roses (which I photographed) onto the model’s cheeks using Photoshop. I wanted the roses to represent “rosy cheeks” in an uncanny way. Again, false eyelashes were used to enhance the eyes and the lips colour was changed to compliment the “rosy cheeks.”

The fourth image was simply edited and arranged on Photoshop creating a photomontage. Colours were enhanced to bring out facial features.

Overall, I believe my project is a success as my series of images on ‘beauty’ were consistent and all are very uncanny and abstract. I wanted to define ‘beauty’ in a surreal way by using original images/materials and arranging and twisting them in a surreal way, inspired by Duchamp. It is about ‘beauty’ yet it is rather uncomfortable to look at, attempting to be less stereotypical about the beauty of femininity.

The serious depicts the marvellous, as an eruption of contradiction within the real. As oppose to simply using a face to represent and explore ‘beauty’ in an overt and ordinary way, I attempted it in an uncanny and surrealist way in de-familiarising the familiar which is ‘beauty’.

Bibliography

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dada

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrealism

Highmore, B. (2002) Everyday Life and Cultural Theory. London. Routledge. (p 45-53)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvador_Dal%C3%AD

http://arthist.binghamton.edu/duchamp/LHOOQ.html

www.dartmouth.edu/…/lesson8art.html

http://www.popartuk.com/art/salvador-dali/face-of-mae-west-1935-mr870-poster.asp

http://www.nicolarandone.com/arte/ernst.htm