I'm Ugly, You're Ugly, We're All Ugly!

Art Exhibition Champions Blemishes, Pimples, Scars And Other Glorious Flaws

By: Priscilla Frank

Source: Huffington Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/09/fetching-blemish-_n_6437120.html?utm_hp_ref=arts

     "For much of the world, a zit is something to be eradicated, a pimple covered up. Wrinkles, scars, bumps and blemishes of any kind are best hidden and hopefully obliterated, bringing the host of said flaws one step closer to physical perfection" (Frank, 1).

     The ideal of society is perfection; a lack of external flaws, repressed ignorance towards internal ones, the desire to hide what is real because, in all actuality, reality is not what is desired. Yet with all its bearing irony, art, the most idealistic and barrier-free natural phenomenas is able to depict such reality truer than humanity itself. "Fetching Blemish", an exhibition at Invisible Exports is dedicated to this reality of flaws, discoloration, blemishes, chipped teeth, the slightest fifteen degree misalignment of one's nose. A combination of the works of several artists, the show mainly focuses on portraiture, specifically that of an imperfect nature, not merely depicting physical flaws, but expressing those which "make us who we are" (Frank, 1). A few artists responsible for these works include Genieve Figgis, Rebecca Morgan, Cindy Sherman, Nicole Eisenman; mainly females, the reason for which can be left to interpretation. The art consists of self-portraits, unrealistically real, as well as external depictions of generality, yearning to provoke the acceptance of differences, especially those within oneself, the act of which is uncommon to most.

     All that stains the angelic white depiction of man with the slightest dent or tarnish is ugly. And "ugly" has become a word largely generalized, commonly placed upon all aspects of life and humanity that it has come to represent merely that which one is not used to seeing, while the concept's subjective and man-made origins have all but been forgotten. But when one truly manages to think, what is this "ugly" claimed to be seen in people? Is it truly that which is undesirable, or merely that which is not known, uncommon? The human eye needs sight of imperfection graced upon the individual, sight of what lies beyond all that is used to hide what is real. The human eye needs sight of flaws, differences, "ugliness", a sight of that, which many have not yet been exposed to; themselves.