This semester, I would like to produce work
that explores the paradoxical elements of body image in America. Even though
America gives woman a set of illusionary guidelines and qualifications that
they must follow in order to be considered beautiful, the accessibility to fast
food and junk food is overbearing. How are women supposed to be thin and
beautiful with all this bad food out there? Do you even have to be thin to be
beautiful? These are all things I would like to explore this semester. The
following examples are relevant to the work I would like to produce over the
semester:
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Lens Based Artists:
1.) Christine Benjamin
Christine
Benjamin worked as a clinical social worker for 14 years. After being diagnosed
with breast cancer, she decided to study photography and phototherapy. Benjamin
mostly concentrates on portraiture, photographing women with breast cancer. Her
“New Work 2” series fits in with what I would like to explore. In this work, a
Snow White character eats fast food and is shown buying not so princess-like
food at the grocery store.
2.) California Gurls – Katy Perry ft. Snoop Dog
This music video is junk food
overload! Katy Perry, the “ideal” sexy character in this music video, parades
around wearing junk food. Why are “sexy” women advertising food that is bad for
you? In this case, you are not what you eat…
3.) Small Fry: a documentary film by Hayley
This documentary is “in the
works”; it began August 2012 in Oakland, California. This documentary is
planned to explore the relationship between fast food and body image. Hayley,
the main character in this film, will attempt to lose 70 pounds in one year;
she will try and go from a size 14 (the average size of an American woman) to a
size 0 (the average size of a runway model). She will do this by eating a
healthy well-balanced diet. The catch is that for one meal a day, she will eat
fast food. Through this documentary, Hayley is not trying to say that fast food
should be part of your diet. She is also not trying to say that a size 0 means
you are beautiful. She is simply trying to prove or disprove her hypothesis in
this experiment.
Non-Lens-Based Artists
1.) Jean Wells
Jean Wells is an American
artist who works mostly with mosaics. Her work is very technical, yet still
playful and paradoxical. The discourse around her work usually revolves around
the loaded topic of consumerism. My two favorite pieces of work by Jean Wells
include “Urban Fruit Tree” and “Ice Cream Sundae”. I really like “Urban Fruit
Tree” because it is futuristic take on what food accessibility and convenience
will look like. I like “Ice Cream Sundae” because it is more about body image.
The larger than life portion of ice cream next to the pinup girl is completely
paradoxical. Will this girl still look the same after she eats that large
portion of ice cream? Not at all.
2.) Kent Christensen
Kent Christensen mostly
focuses on drawings, prints and oil paintings. He lives and works in New York
City and Utah. Christensen’s work is about cultural and personal associations
of food, place and culture. He re-contextualizes personal, emotional, and
psychological associations with the power of food; he does this in a satirical
manner.
3.) “Conflicting Messages of a Media Monster”
This article that I found
talks about the mixed messages our society portrays. Skinny models advertise junk
food in order to make it look more appealing, but does anybody really become
skinny after eating junk food? Another point that the article makes: as the
obesity rate in America increases, the female body image becomes thinner and
thinner. Why is this? My favorite quote
of the article is “our culture is saying eat, eat, eat but don’t get fat” because
it demonstrates perfectly paradoxical body images in America.
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