Thin as Porcelain

My artwork, “Thin as Porcelain”, depicts a girl made of porcelain vomiting into a pot in a porcelain shop. The main colors, purple and a dingy green represent the uneasiness and nausea associated with vomiting. I researched two ancient aspects of Chinese culture, foot-binding and porcelain. Foot-binding is an antiquated practice which tightly bound women’s feet so they could appear smaller. This practice was said to be for beauty, but the underlying purpose was to furtherly subjugate women. I compared this practice to porcelain, one of the strongest ceramic materials, though it's unknown to most, because of how thin it's made to be. This research influenced me to use the image of porcelain to illustrate an outcome of international beauty standards, an eating disorder, more specifically--bulimia. Ultimately, my intention with this artwork is to show a prevalent aspect of womanhood, and to say; these beauty standards are a discreet method to oppress and exploit women and simply enduring this expectation of beauty shows immense strength.  

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