Tags
American, animals, art, beauty, conceptual, culture, Feminism, individualism, learned behavior, monkey, plastic surgery, south florida, vanity
My work is a critique of the social and cultural issues surrounding the modification of the female body. Born in Ecuador and raised in South Florida has made me highly aware of the disparities of cultural values. My work is the result of research on the anthropology of sex appeal, learned social behavior and the studies on attraction. Through biological and evolutionary evidence I have found there’s a large amount of similarities between us and animals. Therefore I use animals to parallel our social structures and methods of mating. Like in most societies there’s a ranking system, American culture has place sex appeal on top. I feel through this obsession with the ‘Porn Star’ perfect body we are losing individuality and have created the acceptance of objectification.
In my work I create ink, watercolor and pastel drawings of hybrids of female humans and animals to parallel social behaviors, sexual habits or social ranking. I create scenes of fights, climbing to the top and mating; all showing competition and exposing their large enhanced breasts and butt implants. My work varies in mediums. I’m often inspired by photographs of wild animals such as monkeys, goats, sheep, and fish when I’m reminded of similar behavior traits or physical features we share with them. I’m interested in creating work that is humorous and can translate an awareness of how culture trends are leading to self-evolution by learned behavior (Monkey see, Monkey do). When analyzing this cultural shift from a scientific point you realize that it’s not about self-esteem (like most of the answers that are given by women who get plastic surgery; self-esteem doesn’t exist without the influence of others) but it’s about attracting another mate, reproducing, and creating “better” human traits. It’s ingrained in us to classify certain body parts that associate with fertility, status, and health from our ancestral needs. In reality we don’t change our DNA when we do breast augmentations and butt implants for vanity reasons, therefore are creating a false world that in the end only makes us more materialized and objectified.
I view the cultural trends of breast augmentation, butt implants, and lip enhancements as fake beauty because it’s objectifying women, affecting self-values, and creating a false world. Demeaning stereotypes are also occurring within this cultural shift despite women’s true identities. In my work I switch the roles of animals, creating them also victims of the domino effects of plastic surgery. I would like for people to reflect on how women have become their worst enemies by being part of the Sheeple generation, competing against one another and how the ‘ideal’ porn body image is influencing today and the future. I believe women should value themselves intellectually and not physically because being unique is being beautiful!
