New Work

The Makeover Project (Seduction in Just One Click), 2009

The Makeover Project is a series of five performances done in a Vancouver shopping mall. In the span of one week, I went to various make up counters at Sears and the Bay and asked to be made up exactly as the model featured in a specific ad campaign. I focused on dominant cosmetic brands such as Yves Saint Laurent, Chanel, Sheisido and Dior. Immediately following each make over session, I would go to the mall’s portrait studio and get my photo taken. I attempted to copy the exact pose of the model in the ad which I was appropriating. The project investigates the subliminal messages within advertising, the representation of women in marketing campaigns, and the impossibility of achieving the standards of beauty promised by the advertising media.