A Girl
‘A Girl’, 2019, from the series 'ABD: Artificial Beauty Disorder’, Narelle Delle Baite, Australia
The Female Identity
This image forms a part of a series concerned with the promotion of beauty which is disempowering Western women. Digitally manipulated, this portrait of a girl is placed within the unsettling familiarity of the dinner setting.
The dinner plate sets the subtle barbaric tone for this image, symbolising a social setting where ideas and discussions are expressed. The setting of the dinner plate symbolises a community and consumption.
Modern media, marketing and advertising have reduced women to a fragmented object that is to be viewed and used. This view of fragmentation, where women have become accustomed to viewing and analysing their female self and bodies as fragments evaluated separately, for example, eyes, nose, hair, breasts, often experience anxiety and despair as a result from the scrutiny. Research indicates there is a danger to viewing a person by dividing them into subject and object, yet this is how women are defined. Impacting womens' potential.
“Nice eyes”, the perception of female beauty is limited, males dominate the output of female beauty in fashion, arts and photography. Historically, the woman has had little control in how she is presented and perceived. To eat the eye alludes to the prominence of a single interpretation of female beauty ideal promoted- which is both unrealistic and unatural.
The Fragments of a Lily (Unseen consequence)
Flowers such as the lily have long been associated with females and the female spirit. The judgements of female bodies-in-parts devalue women and damage the female psyche and female spirit. By approaching female beauty as parts, the truth of female beauty is rejected.
