Incurable
2004-2006
“We risk being the first people in history to have been able
to make their illusions so vivid, so persuasive, so realistic that they can live in them.”
– Daniel Boorstin, The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America, 1961
Incurable explores how we choose to physically create and present ourselves based on internal ideals that we have acquired over time. The forming of these internal ideals is consistently influenced by peers, family members, and by the constant barrage of imagery that surrounds us each day. The advent of Photoshop, advances in plastic surgery, and the plethora of media has helped us to maintain a standard of physical perfection that is essentially unattainable, keeping us on a never-ending quest to achieve the physical manifestation of an unrealizable internal ideal.
The media I have chosen are significant to both the process and the meaning of the work. The characters are first formed in plasteline clay, which never dries. This allows me to continually manipulate features and forms, paralleling our bodies’ constant state of change over time and our attempts to cover up, reshape, and alter our appearances. Next, a picture is taken of the sculpture. Camera angle, lighting, and props set the framework of the final image, which will be digitally manipulated further. Conceptually my use of the photograph demonstrates the illusions a photo can create. The framing of the photograph leaves out information about the realities of the situation and freezes that moment in time, never to change, unlike the nondrying clay and our ever-changing bodies. It is the limitation of information in the frozen moments that make photography a powerful tool for seeing what we want to see or perhaps what we would rather not see. In my experience, most people seem aware of the photograph’s limitations to tell a thorough story, but want to believe in them anyway as evidence of existing life and evidence of possibilities.
By digitally layering photographs of human eyes, these characters are brought to life. The familiar, intimate experience of seeing (images projected from the eyes onto the brain for understanding) suggests that these characters contain a living, thinking body despite their unnatural appearances. The final step of my process is digitally coloring the image. The pallets are influence by the illustrations of children’s books - illustrations that first triggered our imaginations.
This combination of photographic and digital techniques, points to my belief that photographs function by walking the line between factual evidence and an imaginary world. This contradictory duality that is intrinsic to the photograph serves as the perfect stage for my characters to struggle with the contradictions that exist between an internal ideal and the physical manifestation of that ideal. The hope and belief at the core of my characters keeps their faith in the artistry and miracles of these devices to save them from their self-perceived imperfections. It is within this struggle that the characters find their humanity.
