Plastic surgery and other notes of the time

Cat-Woman, 10′ 31”, 2014

ID, 2′ 40”, 2015

“An individual who wants to direct or correct his deepest nature at will, becomes an ”addicted” individual: the more the demand for complete power over one’s own life grows, the more new forms of subjugating individuals develop.” Gilles Lipovetsky, Paradoxical Happiness, 2008The images from this series treat the problem of identity in a direct and at the same time, ironic way. Objects, ie. “victims” of surgical procedures, replaced their faces and bodies with implants, thus abolishing the category of fixed identity. Anatomy has not been destiny for a while; from mother nature we came to cyborg. The paradigm shift of a beautiful, that is, desirable and suitable body imposes the entire industry, and thus the economy of aesthetics. In addition to political correctness, political desirability will soon emerge! The ideal proportions, determined in ancient Greece, are now available, but at what price? Deviation from the ideal proportions is deviation from perfection, ie. not-perfect or natural. It is this divergence that makes up a person’s character. Political desirability is precisely characterlessness.

Like the series of oil paintings, the video ‘’Cat – Woman’’ represents the same, postmodern subject, at the same time, both the object and the subject of surgery, that is, the subject of deconstruction in the video. The heroine of this work seemingly is self-aware, emancipated, liberal and contented. Her world is different, freedom is achieved. However, after the first scenes, we understand that it is a matter of an unfortunate individual who has been spearheading an effort to meet the social norms of beauty and sexuality, despite the years that are coming and the limitations of her friable body. Therefore, she is ready to do everything, to go against nature. Everything on her is artificial, from her teeth and hair to the breasts and the eye.

The man, on the other hand, although defected, with a prosthetic instead of a real hand, does not perceive it, he sees what he wants, what he likes, while the real her stays hidden behind the closed door, visible only for a reflection in the mirror. Taking off masks, one by one, the woman slowly evaporates.

The video ‘’ID’’ deals with the paradox of our control society, where it is approved, and very often desirable, to change one’s look, which gives only the appearance of freedom, while, on the other hand, we are prevented from developing many potentials. That same society scans us, monitors us, installs chips in us, restricts our movement and action, trying, in every way, to keep us within the extremely rigid modus vivendi.