R I N S E    R E L A X    R E V I V E

 

'Rinse Relax Revive' looks at the way we present ourselves. This can often be an expression of our personality but can simultaneously mask our true identity as we imitate a certain persona we wish to project.

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Everyday we strip our body of clothes and re-garnish ourselves with new garments. This work draws links between our modern daily rituals, and those in ancient tribal ceremonies. The ethnographer Victor Turner studied the Ndembu tribe in Africa where it is traditional to strip the subject of their possessions and clothes, leaving them naked as at birth, and covered in mud as in burial. In this moment you stand in a space of Liminality - on the threshold between spaces. This point becomes a moment of reflection as we transition from one state to another.

 

With its masculine energy yet feminine attributes we question the God-like figure’s sexual orientation. It is neither one nor the other, yet both at the same time. There are many conflicting symbols working against each other leaving this figure in a state of limbo.

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The subject’s unnatural toxic colours play against the traditional tribal elements, both celebrating the advances of technology through the bright world of advertising and the way we present ourselves on social media, but also reminds us to disconnect from it and remember what is right there in front of our faces. 

 

A photograph can be airbrushed, or if left untouched can expose the truth of our ‘flaws’. This piece relates to the desire for eternal youth – adverts that are pulling consumers in to buy regenerist skin lotion and wrinkle repair cream. The over exaggerated beauty aesthetics - such as the long eyelash extensions and plump lips - allude to idealistic aesthetics, yet the subject’s closed eyes and still presence evoke a meditative sate of self-reflection.