Angry Arrows

Medium: Polyester slips and embroidery thread

This was a personal project, made outside of freestyle. I explored the internalized hyper awareness that many, including myself, have regarding perceived physical body flaws. I wanted to extend this examination of societal objectification to the rest of the body and spirit, and the conscious choice we all have to make to fight back against the toxic thinking. I delve into the physical process of objectification, the painful severing of our bodies. I made the piece as a garment, because expressing the concepts I wish via clothing, the currency of fashion, seemed to me, to be the most appropriate vehicle.

I wanted to create a tangible interactive expression of something that is oftentimes felt intangibly, barely even put into words.  I explored the physical dismantlement of women, extending beyond the physical, into the mental dismantlement of our parts based on the perceived flaws in our bodies. In order to express the choice to succumb these thoughts that are usually kept internalized, or to choose to fight for our bodies and our minds. I dissected two slips of contrasting color and stitched them back together into a single piece because using undergarments accentuates the vulnerability that is felt when the protective layer of clothing is stripped down closer to the self, shielding very little from the outside world. I wanted to strip away all protective layers in order to reach that painful innermost examination of flaws.

The stitches are modeled after the marks that plastic surgeons use on women’s bodies as they seek perfection through body alteration. There are arrows, marking where to cut and tuck, fill and stretch. They are jagged and unnaturally colored, expressing the harm caused by societal expectations and external pressure and opinions.  The angry arrows point at the alleged flaws, wrecking self image. The slip is split as half nude and half black because in my rational mind I know this hypercritical thinking is unhealthy and a product of societal pressures.  However, in my case, the other half of me continues to spin in unhealthy pursuit of alleged perfection, sometimes even unaware that I’m doing it.

I added in the flares and cut out to integrate the silhouette of the perfect, but unachievable hourglass figure. This project is a frank look at the way my peers and I have been conditioned to see our bodies, parts to be rearranged and reconstructed, not yet acceptable or whole. By exposing these private thoughts I hope to expose this nonsensical destructive thinking.  Our fears are always less powerful when thrown into the light. Through the process of making this and showing it, I hope to inspire myself and many others to choose ourselves, beginning by erasing our own arrows.