~Beauty is in the hand of the beholden~ (2022)
Two channel video 10m15s. Group show, Shimmer, at Durden & Ray, Los Angeles USA. Sept-Oct 2022.
Video stills
~Beauty is in the hand of the beholden~ explores the masks we wear to conceal and convey our sense of self.
Presented as a pair of YouTube makeup tutorials, the work traces the
transformative alchemy achievable with a mere sleight of hand and a set of
ubiquitous cosmetic products. The videos, in-conversation, intertwine two
contrasting aesthetic agendas that are informed by the artist’s bi-racial
identity - those belonging to contemporary mainstream East-Asian culture,
mirrored to those from Western culture.
The language of cosmetic culture encourages us to bend ourselves to meet an other; the ideal model, itself a fluctuating fabrication of cultural values. We contort by contouring, age-defy with ease, we gently dab on colour-correcting cream, concealer, and highlighter. We play with our appearance to gain what we don’t have, and lose what we do, in a gradual morph towards our dream self.
The language of cosmetic culture encourages us to bend ourselves to meet an other; the ideal model, itself a fluctuating fabrication of cultural values. We contort by contouring, age-defy with ease, we gently dab on colour-correcting cream, concealer, and highlighter. We play with our appearance to gain what we don’t have, and lose what we do, in a gradual morph towards our dream self.