Detail of “Missing [Apsara]“: Handmade Ink and Acrylic on mulberry/bamboo paper, 70 x 70cm, 2009
Part 2: “Missing [Apsara]“: Headless
Part 3: “Missing [Apsara]” Supple Status Symbols
Part 4: “Missing [Apsara]” Ramvong
Part 5: “Missing [Apsara]” Sexpats I Have Known
While I painted these tools women use to heighten their features, I thought of several things:
* How Khmer Rouge cadres dressed identically, but the number of ballpoint pens in their pockets indicated their rank
* Women who appraise other women based on the variety and expense of their makeup tubes
* Women the world over who paint our faces and prefer them that way
* Men the world over who don’t like the taste of lipstick
* Sundry toxins in traditional dyes and makeup – like lead and other heavy metals – that slide on the skin like butter [same goes for lead paint onto a canvas]
* Cosmetic companies who make billions out of encouraging women’s anxiety about life-and-death issues like large pores and undereye circles [the west], or freckles & dark skin [Asia/elsewhere], and especially the size of one’s thighs [anywhere wealthy enough to afford an expensive diet program]
I was always horrified by the bleaching creams so popular with Chinese women (not to mention the difficulty of finding moisturisers or make up remover without whitening chemicals, I’m pale enough as it is, if I’d used those I’d probably be transparent by now) – I dread to think what horrific chemicals are in them and almost used to plead with my students not to use them. But then my white American girl friends would lie out in the midday 30-35c sun without sunscreen to get tanned…
Enough rambling, this is a wonderful thought provoking post.