PURE-RACE HYBRID (2017)
Artist Statement:
The Pure-Race Hybrid is a comment on idealised beauty. The feminine beauty ideal is a specific set of beauty standards regarding traits that are thought to increase the physical attractiveness of a woman. It is a phenomenon experienced by many women in the world, though the traits vary with country and culture. Western beauty ideals include being thin and tall, having long hair, having light/tanned skin, having big breasts, large eyes, a small nose, and high cheekbones.
This series explores stereotyped representations of beauty as a ‘template’ of beauty standards that underpin society.
Utilising geometric shapes and distortion these portraits follow the Golden Ratio, which is a number standard of beauty, which is roughly 1.62. The Golden Ratio (also known as Phi, or the Fibonacci number) is the mathematical symmetry algorithm that underlies our perception of attractiveness.
In this series the ‘ideal’ face that meets the requirements of the Golden Ratio is distorted subtly to appear almost alien.
Physical beauty in this regard is an ever-changing construct, a fickle dream that as a society we are bombarded with. Often throughout history, this ‘template’ or beauty standard creates a set of ideals that women are asked to embody, regardless of culture or continent, which has been dictated exclusively by men.
This fact has meant that physical ideals are changeable, but are manifestations of the cultures they come from and have been influenced by the male perspective. This project intends to draw attention to this ‘template’ of beauty that we as a society are often held to, and illustrating how absurd beauty expectations are in this day and age.
