Advanced Sculpture, 2014

Project 1: Process

Project 1: Process
Intention Statement

Approaching the issues surrounding race, privilege, and institutionalized discrimination is as challenging as it is uncomfortable especially when the topic comes up in conversation. Yet it is the very act of conversation that allows individuals to make strides toward defeating discrimination and race-driven insecurities and overcoming inequality. In my work, I approach the issue of race and beauty by questioning the color of beauty. Does beauty really have a color? I approach this question through the process of painting and masking as it allows me to recapture my own struggles and personal vendetta with this issue of beauty and color as well as speak to the larger issue at hand—the societal quest to achieve whiteness and lighter skin.
 In western society and even on a global scale, media and industries have catered to this pursuit for fair skin and lightness which has in effect, led to the production and marketing of bleaching creams and skin lightening serums. These skin-lightening agents are sold in most beauty supply stores and people of color are among the majority of the population that uses them. Even prominent celebrities have been known to use these agents or have been lightened in magazines. I too am one of many who have used bleaching creams to achieve this ideal of beauty. So on one level, my work is personal, yet on a grander scale, it is public and a larger social issue.

Through the processes of painting and masking over within this performance, I intended to reenact the process of my skin bleaching and how for a long period of time, I attempted to mask my natural skin tone and insecurities with a more confident layer of lighter skin. In doing so also, I allowed my self to succumb to this ideal that lighter is more beautiful as it is more powerful. By having three different people of varying skin tones—all lighter than my own—paint over my skin, I engaged my body and skin tone as a surface layer that could be painted and covered up. I gave control to the person painting my skin, succumbing to the power of their hands, their paint, their paintbrushes, and their skin colors. My goal in for these private sessions was to release power and have myself made to look like them—to be light like them—just as I had desired to look like a specific image. I went further to represent my vulnerability to this ideal of beauty and process of painting and masking over my skin tone by removing my black shirt, undoing and throwing back my braids, and taking off my glasses so as to blind myself to the act of lightening my skin and lend my body completely to the process and the person painting me. My intent was also to generate a sense of discomfort and I furthered this by stripping away parts of my identity and the color black as well as abstaining from conversation during the process. I wanted each person to think about the act as they performed the act, to feel uncomfortable, and to question the act. The absence of conversation was also intended to generate discomfort and a stronger mental response from the person painting my face as well as viewer watching the process occur. This was also meant to engage the person painting fully into the process because I remained passive, there were no distraction, no opinions, and a kind of disconnection between myself and the person painting me. I also intended the viewer to feel disconnected because the person’s back was turned away from the viewer and the only image you could see of them was their reflection in the mirror. The mirror acted as an identifier, identifying the race of the individual and their emotional responses to the process. The mirror also represents the act of looking and reflecting—in both a concrete and metaphorical sense. The individual was looking at themselves and the viewer was looking at them looking at themselves. The reflection of the individual and their skin tone was reflected onto me as they referenced their appearance so that they could paint it onto me. Their emotional response was also reflected and captured and I intended for these responses to in some way be reflected onto the viewer. I wanted the viewer to feel a sense of discomfort as they watched the painter become uncomfortable and as they observed this uncomfortable process. What also contributed a kind of disconnection between the viewer and the performance and process taking place was the absence of conversation between myself and the person painting me and between the two of us and the viewer watching us which was also reinforced by the fact that they are watching a documentation of the performance rather than an actual live performance. The disconnection and passiveness on a grander scale was intended to represent the overall disconnection and unawareness that people of lighter complexion and many people in general, have in relation to this issue of skin bleaching and societal pressures that are placed on darker individuals to look whiter and lighter.

Having 3 people of varying skin tones, I knew that they would react differently and but I also knew that the darkest of them would somehow feel the strongest about the issue at hand. I began with a person who was white and asked that they paint me white to embody power difference and privilege that white people have as they are not pressured to be white and are therefore unaware of how this pressure affects people of color. I also intended to achieve whiteness and a beautiful, lighter complexion just as skin bleaching creams promise.  I then sought to reach another level of lightness that was darker than white but still light to alter the ideal of beauty. The next person I asked to paint was of mixed race—half White and half Filipino—which alters this beauty ideal because she has whiteness but she is still darker and a person of color. The last performance was with a person who, although had a lighter complexion than my own, was closer to me in complexion as they are a darker person of color and placed outside of the ideal of beauty and lightness. I had each individual watch the process after it was filmed so as to allow them to take on the role of the viewer and observe this process and quest to achieve beauty with a lighter skin tone. I knew that the conversation would shift as it went from the lightest individual to the darkest and that by the time I reached the last person, I would have a sense of connection to the person painting me and shared feelings toward the issue of race and beauty. I also consciously made the decision to include all the colors of face paint and not just specific skin tone colors in effort to allow the individual to mix colors to get as close to their skin tone as possible. I did not want to just do representational colors like white for white skin and black for black skin. I wanted to achieve the actual skin color but at the same time show that even whiteness is a blend of various colors.

If I could go back, I would improve my weakest area which was set-up and organization. First I would have had each person paint me with their hands so as to emphasize this direct pressure to be whiter and lighter as well as to embody differences in power between white and lighter people and how it affects darker skin and puts them at a disadvantage in society. I would have also made sure to have identical set-ups for each performance. I would have made sure to have the camera zoomed in at the same dimensions as well as the placement of the paints and mirror. This, in turn, would ensure that same process occurs in the exact environment and in the exact manner and the viewer’s perception of the process and performance does not change.

.