pain is pain beauty is glory (2023)

I wanted to be more aware of what I pay attention to, so I decided to look through my screenshot folder. This folder has lots of pictures I took because something caught my eye and I wanted to remember it. As I went through these pictures, I noticed many were about the human body. It became kind of an obsession, focusing on how bodies can be changed, hurt, improved, or compared.

For instance, I thought about cosmetic surgery, which is like a show of how we can change our bodies on purpose. I became really interested in the different ways people show and talk about bodies. This made me think about myself and how I see me. It’s a mix of not liking some things but also accepting them. A connection between plastic arts to medical stuff, social media.

I also looked at things I collected and forgot about, displayed on a shelf. Like deciding to forget something on purpose. It’s a way of repurposing, similar to how I repurpose found objects. The shelf becomes a symbol of intentionally putting something aside or deciding to forget an idea.