by Sydney Hardin
FETISHES… TRANSORMATION FROM THE BENIGN…
QUESTION ASSUMPTIONS”
argue that the eyes serve as mirrors as often as windows; reflecting or deflecting cultural conventions as
the situation demands. Truth be told, the eyes are not the only features that perform double duty as panes
of reflective or deflective glass. A crinkle of the nose can render a face sweet or sour. A tightening of the
lips denies, while a loosening proffers. With a tilt of the head, a woman can morph into a coquettish young
adult, or even a young girl. Even the hair, the way it is styled and kept, speaks to vulnerability or
strength. You name it; it's difficult to deny that the facial features are a link to socio-political information.
Artist statement excerpt: “I began my artistic research focusing upon the media's use of erotic
innocence as a marketing tool. My aim is always to create art that is critically engaged with the culture in
which I live. My largest artistic influence, Pop Art, consists of art that extracts aspects of our culture only to
throw them back in our faces. It is the transformation from the benign—the subjects of our selective
cultural blindness—to the malignant that characterizes my fascination with Pop Art. I want to create
images that question assumptions, and I intend my paintings to render viewers uncomfortable once they
begin questioning their assumptions. Having also majored in art history, I am fascinated by the ways in
which imagery profoundly influences the psychological perceptions of a culture. I believe that smirking best
intensifies cringing. My work is evolving to stand as deadpan re-presentations of the cultural fetishes
marketed to very young girls, darkly humorous views of the eroticised chimeras to which young girls look
for inspiration. I am working to create comedic objects that possess what David Robbins describes as an
"aggressive, belligerent relation to reality."
The current series, entitled "Facials," stems from a focus upon the faces of women and girls
within sources as varied as Vogue and Disney. These "Facials" rely upon what is not revealed;
robbed of their disparate contexts, they exist re-presented in a vacuum of possible
salaciousness. Not unlike the tiltle of the show, these images tread a fine line between a
socially acceptable pursuit or youth, and one that is anything but.
-ARTIST CV
-Biographical Information
-Artist Statement
