The Five Shades of Nude (Pasty Spots #1), 2023
Silicone Breast Pasties and Acrylic on Canvas, 5ft x 5ft
Drawing inspiration from Damien Hirst’s renowned colored spot series, Pasty Spots #1, I reimagine his composition through the lens of humanity, intimacy and humor. Utilizing nipple pasties as the primary medium, it embodies a warmth of color with juxtaposition-to-depersonalization of the private and the public. Each hand-positioned spot is uniformly placed to honor the spectrum of skin tones. In Pasty Spot #1, my innermost associations becomes universal — challenging reflection on the nuances of intimacy, body, and color in the communal eye.
Despite their manufactured presence, this work itself reveals subtle imperfections. This element parallels a mass-produced-yet-imperfect nature of my experiences by creating a context for this transformative time in history — highlighting the irony of seeking flawless uniformity in a domain characterized by its diversity and unpredictability.
Deconstructing traditional art media, I am using objects typically concealed and associated with fashion and beauty — visually commenting on exposure, visibility and “female” representation in the art world. My effort to move from my body, myself, by adding depth and humor to our need for seamless presentation.
Pasty Spots #1 serves as a satirical appropriation of a world-known, artwork by Damien Hirst. @damienhirst It uses lightness, simplicity and unexpected materials to buoyantly challenge convention and pretension in a perceived western contemporary art world.
