It’s about time I wrote a description for this ongoing series, so here goes:
These works are a series of analogue collages, handcrafted from my vast collection of women’s monthlies magazines. Glossy, ‘perfect’, problematic - these magazines are well known for their editorial appeal and their questionable messages.
Collage is my way of exploring manual image manipulation. It’s a theme which is reflected in the pages in these publications - Photoshopped limbs, airbrushed thighs, even the graphic design in the layout. No image is neutral.
Image manipulation first interested me whilst I was conducting research for my undergraduate dissertation - in which I explored the use of digital editing tools on social media. These practices, in turn, lead to the commodification of the visual of the body, thus dictating ideal forms of ‘being’ and creating an aspirational culture amongst the consumers of the images.
This series is my subversion.