Faith Holland | Portfolio Categories Beauty

January 8, 2018 In

The Fetishes

The Fetishes are hybrid GIF-sculptures that use different consumer devices, such as cell phones, tablets, and laptops as their bases. Each device plays a moving-image abstraction of flesh that has been appropriated from pornography. The screen of the device is treated with a tactile substance such as pubic hair, fur, makeup, or lubricant. The Fetishes highlight the physical way we interact with our devices–caressing, prodding, and cradling them all day long. They are installed on top of a commercial counter display that contains working materials (makeup, wires, faux fur), highlighting the tension between the objects’ statuses as both commodities and life partners.

installation photos by Walter Wlodarczyk

January 15, 2017 In

TechnoMakeup

TechnoMakeup is a YouTube channel consisting of makeup tutorial videos for devices, apps, and websites. The series reflects on the intimate relationship we have with our technology—using it morning and night, updating its software, checking its notifications, and stroking its screen. In the tutorials, I apply moisturizer and makeup to devices like phones, tablets, and computer monitors; thus the care and maintenance that we enact on our bodies, particularly feminine bodies, is remapped onto technology. This allows for a customization and an aesthetic that is reminiscent of the early web: colorful, glittery, and user-generated.

December 26, 2016 In

Body Devices

Body Devices addresses both the sexualization and bodily maintenance aspects of our most personal devices. Each GIF is of a different device displaying zoomed-in, abstracted swatches of skin appropriated from pornography. The devices are then activated by disembodied hands and objects—fingers zooming, scrolling, caressing; also makeup brushes applying powder, ambiguous droplets appearing on the screen, etc. Just as the body is a site for multiple uses, so are our technologies. We share our lives with our laptop, cell phone, and/or tablet; they provide us with pleasure and in exchange we offer care.

October 2, 2012 In

Everyday Makeup

Everyday Makeup is about the ritual of ‘putting on a face’ every morning. For many women—and some men as the market tries to expand—makeup is an everyday activity, a necessity before leaving the house.

This performance dilates the experience of putting on makeup by applying a week’s worth in a single sitting on 14th Street in Manhattan. The performance takes approximately an hour, each ‘day’ being reminiscent of ‘five-minute makeup.’ Locating myself nearby various beauty salons, it almost appears as though I could be demonstrating products for sale, but quickly it becomes evident that something is awry. The piece condenses time and loops a typical morning together, in a seemingly endless cycle of putting on makeup—applied seven times, one layer on top of the other. Each ‘day’ begins afresh by covering my entire face with concealer. As the makeup gets caked on, my face slowly turns an absurd pink from the mixing cosmetics. Finally, all the makeup layers are stripped off tissue by tissue.

This performance was part of Art in Odd Places Festival: Model.

Photos and footage by Anushya Badrinath, Hilary Basing, Cylixe, Jessica Eis, Khanh Xiu Tran, and James Reddington.

November 2, 2011 In

Makeup Tips

Makeup Tips appropriates three instructional videos depicting “natural” make-up to comment on the mandate of five-minute make-up. Although the original videos are divided by ethnicity, the make-up techniques all appear the same and the women look more alike than different. The actual application of make-up is removed—we only see the women’s faces change incrementally in melancholy moments of idleness. The women appear to be transformed against their own wishes; their faces betray their boredom and unhappiness, yet they passively endure the process.

June 2, 2011 In

Retouch, Reform, Refit

Retouch, Reform, Refit deconstructs contemporary beauty standards and mechanics. Using myself as a subject, I did a thorough retouching of a studio self-portrait in Photoshop. Each image represents the changes to one layer of the Photoshop document, showing the distortions added to my own face to make it look more “beautiful.” This body of work lays bear the process of retouching and it’s the way it deforms facial features and skews our perception of beauty.

April 2, 2011 In

Improving, Non-Stop.

Improving, Non-Stop is a science fiction short exploring contemporary magazine-culture beauty standards and the part they play in everyday life. Using myself as a subject, I did a thorough retouching of a self-portrait in Photoshop. This process is edited down to show certain salient moments in real time. The film then breaks into live action and I wear a mask of the retouched self-portrait. My face is transformed into a “perfect” version of myself, but the act of wearing a mask prevents normal activity and interaction. The result is darkly humorous and thoroughly uncomfortable.