Dystopia of Glitter

What is comforting and what is true are often two very different things. Inspired by Hannah Arendt’s “Banality of Evil”, social psychology experiments such as the Milgram and Stanford Prison Experiments sought to explain the horrors of the Holocaust. Revealing the dark side of human nature, these experiments clearly demonstrate authority’s power over morals and the sadistic capabilities of ordinary people. Alerting us to the dangers within, these outcomes make painfully clear the brutal reality of human nature.
My art is both an exploration of this reality, and through its acknowledgement, a gesture of defiance. Working mainly in portraiture, the subjective qualities of the photograph are repackaged through layers of glitter. From the calm persona of a Nazi henchman to the gratuitous gore of a crime scene, man’s depravity is put on spectacle. Ranging from exact replicas to abstract interpretations; guilt, nationalism, seduction, repulsion, and individual prejudice are all paralleled. Beautiful yet cheap, the inherit dichotomy of glitter exposes the duality of human nature. Blurring the lines between endorsement and condemnation, this juxtaposition of image and material confronts the viewer with moral grayness. Alluding to the monsters within, each piece is a dilemma, raising more questions than answers.