Fixation: seeing oneself
Major
Hispanic Studies
Submission Type
Oral Presentation
Area of Study or Work
Art, Philosophy, Women's and Gender Studies
Faculty Advisor
Carmen Lozar
Location
CNS E101
Start Date
4-12-2025 8:30 AM
End Date
4-12-2025 9:30 AM
Abstract
In these kiln-formed glass pieces, I aim to actualize how fixation breaks apart who a person is. For me, the face is the center of knowing another person, and the most confusing part of my own body. Society has formed generations of people who believe we know how we look and are wrong. The permeation of mirrors and cameras in society, along with social media saying how one should look has led to inset longings to change appearance, or at least, a level of unhappiness in how one looks. Every morning, I get ready in front of a mirror, skipping past the whole and fixating on features. I see it down to the pores and hairs, in a mirror that I have been led to believe is me. By taking live molds of my face, I was able to present it as it is, and not how I see it in my mirror, while also disjointing the pieces to represent how the parts of the face are separated in my brain, even though they truthfully are one. The face can never survive as parts, because it exists as a whole. I wanted to question how society has disjointed the whole, by evoking how one sees themself in a mirror- the main way we have come to understand how we look, and in a way, who we are. How does a personal study of one's face and skin impact what the pieces come together to form? Is it possible for society to work together, after so many wrong turns, with technological advances to ever show what we look like to other people, as a person, a self, a soul, a face, or a body? And if it does, will we finally feel beautiful then?
Fixation: seeing oneself
CNS E101
In these kiln-formed glass pieces, I aim to actualize how fixation breaks apart who a person is. For me, the face is the center of knowing another person, and the most confusing part of my own body. Society has formed generations of people who believe we know how we look and are wrong. The permeation of mirrors and cameras in society, along with social media saying how one should look has led to inset longings to change appearance, or at least, a level of unhappiness in how one looks. Every morning, I get ready in front of a mirror, skipping past the whole and fixating on features. I see it down to the pores and hairs, in a mirror that I have been led to believe is me. By taking live molds of my face, I was able to present it as it is, and not how I see it in my mirror, while also disjointing the pieces to represent how the parts of the face are separated in my brain, even though they truthfully are one. The face can never survive as parts, because it exists as a whole. I wanted to question how society has disjointed the whole, by evoking how one sees themself in a mirror- the main way we have come to understand how we look, and in a way, who we are. How does a personal study of one's face and skin impact what the pieces come together to form? Is it possible for society to work together, after so many wrong turns, with technological advances to ever show what we look like to other people, as a person, a self, a soul, a face, or a body? And if it does, will we finally feel beautiful then?