What is considered beautiful differs from country to country, culture to culture, individual to individual. These beauty standards and an individual’s “choice” to conform to them can change how societies and their members function. As a result, there is often a disparity among the Self, Other’s Self, and the Perceived Self. Imposed is an exploration of these concepts and how they are related.
The Self is a portrait of myself. The Other’s Self is the portrait of myself marked with beauty standards from different countries. I chose to research the beauty standards of China, France, Korea, Mexico,Morocco, and the United States because these are places that I have some personal connection to and thereby have felt the imposition of beauty standards from, though I acknowledge that these beauty standards are subjective and felt differently by everyone. The Perceived Self is the confrontation I have with the Other’s Self, which dictates a self outside of myself — one that is “improved” through the process of beautification.
Imposed is thus an exploration of how I consciously and subconsciously navigate different countries’ beauty standards when imposing them on myself.
In the interactive gallery installation at Index Art Center, I invited viewers to take part in this exploration through physically imposing beauty standards onto my portrait. This installation gave the time and space for people to reflect on the implications of this act and how we perpetuate beauty standards both consciously and unconsciously.
