GROTESQUE EVE COSTUME
“Eve” as she is represented by many male artist over the years embodies the ideal image of an European woman and thus creates entry point to examine ideas of beauty and perfection. Carnival as Mikhail Bakhtin theorizes becomes a free space to transform Eve’s image from her traditional representation. Her physical form is recreated through deformity and defilement in the time of the carnivalesque using Caribbean carnival fashion and Grotesque realism.
Utilizing the dualistic nature of the topsy turvy world of medieval carnival. Eve and the costume transcends the ideas of societal beauty and perfection. while embodying her own dualistic qualities in which she is perfect and became flawed as a result of the fall of man; the costume occupies the middle ground between eve's dualism.
GROTESQUE COSTUME DESIGNS
Grotesque costume design which provides Eve with a physical appearance from her head to her feet through the mix-matching of the designs as can be seen in the Grotesque fashion series. These pieces are used as sketches for costume making.
PIN UP REBELS
The pin up rebel series wages war against the representation of women as we have been historically represented by men through a reconstruction of the female form through costumes. Pin up girls are symbolic of the ideal and mass produced woman as she is represented by men for the consumption of man.
The representation occupies the free space of carnival and thus is transformed through the costume as a means to deconstruct and challenge the oversexualization of perfect femininity within vintage pin up posters. Through this representation, the body is liberated from the shackles of perfection and becomes an over exaggerated version of the human’s most natural form.
ARE YOU OFFENDED YET?
The “Are you offended yet?” series uses Black caricature and Eve’s grotesque face masks to disrespect the classical representation of whiteness, out of anger of the destruction of murals and billboards advocating that Black lives matter. The disrespect becomes an entry point to question the use of racist imagery and slurs to attack people of a different ethnicity.
This body of work is meant to offend and appall the viewer. The interchangeable faces emphasizes the “yet?” of the title, if I used this face instead, would you be offended?
GROTESQUE FASHION
This series shows how the grotesque costume pieces are to be worn.
DRESS ME UP AND MAYBE THE IMPERFECT BECOMES PERFECT
This piece experiments with personal feelings, I experience of wanting to be perfect by the standard of society or charting my own path to define my own beauty. As the title suggest, this piece acts as a game to bring awareness to my struggle. The player will have to think and consider their own stance on the ideas presented.
In this game, Barbie references the ideal and perfect beauty, the one to be challenged. The player must make a decision, will they (a) conform to the standards of society, (b) rebel or (c) will they take a blended approach and live their truth by being completely honest with themselves and their bodies.
