2017
Signed, dated, titled verso
Silver gelatin print in artist’s frame or mounted on aluminium
117 x 80 cm
Edition of 3 plus 2 artist’s proofs
Beauty and aesthetics are two concepts that over the years have evolved to taking on ever changing meanings.
Beauty and shape/appearance, beauty and size, beauty and virtue. Greek culture has taught us that the word “aesthetics” means sensation, more precisely the part of our conscience that uses the senses in the search of beauty.
In the modern age these two words are inseparable. In accordance with this principle, we have been culturally programmed to value what stands out at first sight, what gives us serenity, prosperity and peace of mind. In order not minimize mental effort, to not go beyond the obvious, and what is imposed upon us, and to whom it is impossible to say no.
Yet in recent years fashion has changed its course of direction/travel, disrupting/challenging everything we were once used to. Today beauty is no longer synonymous with perfection, but rather imperfection and uniqueness/originality. This fascination with imperfection grows in the fashion system at the expense of/to the detriment of the polished/shiny world of the ’80s. It opposes their imposed and exaggerated norms of beauty, which repeated/presented in the most unthinkable ways, no longer have the power to be remembered.
As such, the models we see on the catwalk today no longer represent classical beauty, in fact their unique faces and bodies are far from this stereotype of beauty.
Far from the time when beautiful meant perfection, designers now investigate the aesthetics of ugliness, seen as the embodiment of disturbing and unsettling elements, creating a new trend: the “coolness of diversity”. Ugliness asserts itself and challenges every certainty held surrounding aesthetics up until now. Everything that is ugly, precisely because it is hard to appreciate, is reconsidered, debated, shouted and loved.
Beauty is no longer standard or universal,. It is born from an astute observation of reality. Today “diversity” becomes an extraordinary source of inspiration to express everyone’s freedom of expression. The trend is towards/in favour of the acceptance of differences, against stereotypes of sexuality and it embraces the spirit of neutrality and of the inclusion of diversity. In the crow gender’s trend, the body becomes the protagonist, beyond any label, because today beauty is all about personality. It’s a choice that goes beyond any geographical origin, religious belief or sexual inclination.
.