Grid ART- Nitty Gritty Body Image

The extremes of body image and society's role in building norms has always been an issue I've found incredibly interesting. From a personal stand point, I identify with this back and forth identity struggle and the pressures of a woman in today's society to fit a certain standard. We see curvaceous figures like Beyonce's and Shakira, model bodies like Adriana Lima and Gizelle and then, there's the rest of us. The majority of America, overweight due to a culture obsessed with over production and mass consumption.
The idea for this grid art project stemmed deep within my own passions and self doubts. Making up the 900 object grid were countless food wrappers, majority 'fun size' chocolate candy wrappers- purposefully used to pit the irony of their size against their substance. Along with the candy wrappers I mixed in other junk food scraps including friend's food casings from McDonalds and Starbucks. Here and there I placed healthy wrappers from green tea or whole grain pasta, creating an almost 'Where's Waldo' like effect, in search for what's left of the healthy in society, attempting to find middle ground. The food wrappers represent one extreme of society- the over consumption, the lack of self control, and my own sweet tooth, a weakness and craving that I deal with in waves.

Juxtaposed against the backdrop of wrappers, I created the side silhouette of society's 'perfect' woman: slender shoulder, big breasts, small size zero waist and curvaceous behind. At first, I started building this woman, still following the grid structure. Her abdomen made up of a magazine cut outs of the perfect abs, toned and taut or the tiny tummies in advertisements. Building and building, it was difficult to determine the exact dimensions. I would crouch down on the floor for hours on my knees, then get up, look from a different angle, then get back down and re-address the image and keep building. This was my favorite part. I used all magazine cut outs of women's different body parts- it felt like a meat market, how society picks us apart and rates us depending on our parts-" oh, GREAT ass..she's a 10" "did you SEE that rack?!" "motorboat haven" or even worse, the comments made regarding weight, curves v.s. cellulite. I specifically started out piece by piece then as the body got bigger, I start cutting out just portions of different skin tones, curves of the body, and collaging them in segments, placing them to create the lines of the hip or breast bone.