Faking it : the seduction of surface

Abstract

This creative research conflates three of my personal obsessions -- the French Rococo, television, and craft materials -- and culminates with a collection of wearable sculptures that satirize the often-ostentatious masquerade of American mating rituals. Channeling a carnivalesque Rococo spirit, I parody gender stereotypes and behavioral posturing through a series of lavishly adorned, latex-infused costumes; temporary "second skins" of illusive identity one might don to entice a lover. Such transformative sexual strategies are often engrained into our biological makeup and cultural psyche, becoming amplified and exalted through the distorted lens of visual media sources, particularly via the celebrity culture of unscripted "reality" television. Ornamenting the titillating forms with stereotypical materials gleaned from popular culture and art history, my work takes a critical but arousing peek at the superficial American social landscape and its effects on sexual personae. In a world that values casual, affordable comforts, this work offers some uncomfortable tension as viewers consider what they "buy into" and "fake" in order to mask their own insecurities and seduce a mate. In this project I present a humorous portrait of an insecure society obsessed with surface relationships and dedicated to "making it" through Faking It.