Synopsis:
A tormented girl in front of a bathroom mirror is cycling through eight different looks. Her expression remains unhappy and unsatisfied with every look. Once ended, the footage loops back to the beginning.
Project Description:
Faceology is a short experimental art film for exhibition.
This project explores a woman’s choices in life, the faces she dons in public, the place she needs to make for herself in the world, how she struggles to fit in, the labels she is forced to take on, and how she resents them. Women struggle with these narrow definitions; they fight to fit in or try to shake them off. The piece could also be interpreted as the stages in a woman’s life, and all the personalities she has lived through or will have to face. It’s a play on the labels women are branded with or the faces they choose to wear, the pressures they face to comply with society’s standards, and their struggle to de-stereotype feminine identity.
Artist’s Statement
Throughout my career as a filmmaker I have worked with many different women as they act out characters in a story or perform as models for corporate shoots. The various roles they portray on-screen are often representative of the many labels that women seem wear in life. As an emerging artist, I wanted to create a piece where I experiment with all the different labels a young woman wrestles with. She loses every time, yet she tries again and again, striving to finally “see herself”.
People hate to be categorized themselves, and yet they are quick to categorize others. Perhaps pigeonholing people into categories makes it easier to understand them. It’s too crude and one-dimensional to simply slap a label on someone. The conscious mind is vastly complex, lending one’s personality many different facets. Yet the objectification of women is as rampant as it ever was. Feminism has evolved, but the many faces of femininity are labels that women have to deal with every day.
What is the face that we show to the world every day? What do we want people to see? I believe women are pressured to fit into certain categories and as a result, they suffer from low self-esteem. Is she innocent and pure, sweet and naïve? Is she a cultured, elegant creature of the night? Or perhaps a raging anarchist… or an insatiable slut? (Why is the label of “slut” so offensive? Instead, why isn’t a woman appreciated for proudly asserting her sexuality?) In terms of power, a woman could be a captivating diva on stage, or ruling corporations with an iron hand. Most interestingly: is she all these things, but trying to find a missing part of herself?
By visually experimenting with eight different faces, I wanted to create a lush tableau of feminine exaggeration pained with alienation, conflict, and subjugation. One can interpret the visuals in a number of ways. It might even bring to mind the future labels she could encounter in life: pregnancy, motherhood, childlessness, marriage, a change in sexuality, or solitude. It can be argued that some of these are merely state of being, such as pregnancy. Yet there are labels associated with each one as well. These eight “faces” in Faceology could just be a sample, or a precursor to many other faces women must face.
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