Molt (Installation)

2023

Mixed Media

Dimensions Variable

Beneath glamorous sheen of the beauty industry lies the promise to preserve and improve, to reverse deficiency and decay. Gels, creams, serums, lotions, masks are spread and smeared on to our fragile shells as rigorous daily ritual. 

 

As the mechanics of capitalism continue to objectify its consumers, its products and commodities take on increasing subjectivity. I embalm these sensuous bottles, jars, vessels and extract their exoskeletons. They are reduced to pockets of air trapped in plastic skins – muted rubber phantoms. 

 

The products remain identifiable even when stripped of material adornment, testament to the mythmaking power of brands. Erect or limp, plump or wrinkled, they are traces left behind, of consumerism’s continual provocation of touch, implosion of desire, and lingering impotence. 

 

I empty their contents in a sugary swamp. The tinted, floral-scented emulsions begin to sour and curdle into a synthetic syrup that parodies bodily fluids. The fount of youth congeals and an absence is preserved.