PERFECTION is a PERCEPTION
A reflection about 'what it means to be a woman' through this poem done by my friend Gregory Carniel.
What is it to be (or to become) a woman?
What defines someone's gender? What does the feminine represent? It is not news that, as women, every single day of our lives we are faced with an immense list of expectations of what a beautiful and desired woman should be, a perfect and loving mother, an exemplary wife, an amazing and heavenly daughter…
Women are constantly being watched and controlled in every aspect – beauty, intelligence, professional performance, clothes, hair, makeup, behaviors, etc.– but mainly in relation to our body appearance and choices presentation.
No wonder, today, Brazil is the country that most performs beauty procedures and plastic surgeries in the world… I said, IN THE WORLD! The desire for a "perfect face", a thin and worked out body, a flawless skin, the famous 'brazilian wax' and the culture of a no hair body, big and hard breasts, an almost negative belly, zero cellulite… and so on! This obsession with beauty is insane, so unhealthy and is destroying many women.
Thinking about all these concepts, I brought this visual expression to an indoor mural where I've worked on a lettering looking like a "prison" – letters extremely measured and fitted into a visual box – for the "PERFECTION" word, representing this obsession to be thin and perfectly aligned to the media and world expectations. In contrast with the expression "PERCEPTION" illustrated in fluid forms inspired by marbling patterns to express our bodies' fluidity and diversity.
I really believe that the main gift of feminine energy is sensitivity, intuition, feelings and deep reflections about our emotions and life. I see the feminine as this transforming, resilient and inspiring force, which is capable of healing, transmuting pain into forgiveness, hate into love, fear into courage... The feminine energy is so powerful and welcoming and certainly is in everyone us, regardless of genres.
Mural painted indoors. Check out some creative processes below.
To read it in Portuguese / Para ler este texto em português, acesse aqui.
