44'' x 20'', mixed media on photographic print, 2016
UNLEARN// a study in subverting beauty
Unlearn is a series of 36 mixed media portraits coupled with a sound installation. It is difficult to imagine a world where one remains free from an enforced standard of beauty. Though standards are inescapable in any culture, it seems that within Western culture specifically, we are constantly bombarded with images and advice on how to achieve an unattainable ideal. Each participant of the project has been interviewed regarding their individual experience: how their perception of themselves and definition of beauty has been affected by of the pressures of societal standards. All subjects are in their mid twenties-early thirties, friends and acquaintances of the artist who subvert the general standard of beauty as it is known today. Most of us struggle to love and accept our bodies, unlearning the conventional expectations that are enforced.