Many have asked me, "What's the deal with the naked people?" Instead of replying to every single email I decided to post the artistic statement about the project. Special thanks to the Chicago Cultural center for giving me the grant to fund the whole thing!
The main purpose of the project is to make the viewer realize that people, real people, don’t look like Calvin Klein ads. Those so gloriously promoted through commercial fashion advertising and entertainment are not an accurate reflection of society. Unless genetics has dealt you an Adonis body or you have the luxury of spending countless hours in a gym, “perfection” is unattainable.
One should maintain a certain level of health through diet and exercise, but one should not suffer mental or physical anguish for the sake of perfect abs.
The objects the models hold are for social and humorous purpose. Society, particularly American society, places a great deal of value on material objects (Forgive me for making such a jidgement, seem prejudiced but not uninformed). People are judged by how much they make, by the label sewn upon their clothes and handbags (lable slaves), or whatever they do or do not posses (material). The object the model holds is chosen by the person who modeled before them in the series. For example; my first model (Mathew) would hold an object I choose, say a green bell pepper. The next person who models would hold an object Mathew owns. So, if Mathew chooses a cowboy hat for Sherry to hold, that is her object. Sherry then chooses the next object for the model and the cycle continues.
I feel that by stripping away clothes, covering, sometimes barely, one’s crotch with an insignificant object shows our frequently forgotten bond of humanity. The objects are used because they don’t matter. You the viewer are the same as the model; both naked with lumps, wrinkles ,scars, and above all, FLAWS.
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