IDEAL
2018
Acrylic, Ink, Foil, Plastic Dolls
Inspired by my observation of the idolization of seemingly perfect people on the internet, this piece concerns verification’s ability to shape our standards of beauty and the concept of idolization. These “idols,” exhibited by skinny, headless plastic dolls are perfect, like runway models. But they are only elevated to the standard to strut a designated, shiny runway by means of the verification and thus encouragement of the red, “ugly” majority, who, with desperation, grasp at their idols, craving their perfection and status. Idolization perpetuates this divide in the perception of value. Consequently, we observe the loss of what makes us truly human in the verification of the impossible. The construction of the piece, from the runway that protrudes into the foreground, to the choice of physical plastic dolls, to the exaggeration in the red faces, is meant to communicate a tragic surreal environment in which verification goes out of hand. The internet, that reduces an individual to deliberately-edited photos and textual dialogue, should be used in moderation to avoid the possibility of a showcase of decapitated perfection.