RAW
RAW is a contemporary publication that examines how advertising perpetuates artificial ideals of beauty and hygiene, while overlooking the realities of the maintenance required to sustain them. It challenges the binary of clean versus dirty through an advertising campaign and installation that pairs sanitized visuals with objects from beauty rituals that are considered abject. Through contrasting these images and objects, the work exposes the tension between polished appearances and the hidden labor behind beautification, drawing on the aesthetics of commercial beauty branding.
RAW takes the form of both a publication and an installation, featuring minimalist design elements, clinical color palettes, clean typographic systems, and structured compositions that mirror the aesthetic of commercial beauty branding.
In juxtaposition, the installation highlights the discarded objects used in the hygienic process, such as makeup wipes, makeup brushes, floss, hair, lip gloss, retainers, mirrors, blush, foundation, concealer, pimple patches, powder, cotton pads, hair dye, and nails. Julia Kristeva’s theory of abjection and Jacques Derrida’s deconstruction provide the critical framework. Abjection describes society’s rejection of what is deemed impure1, while deconstruction reveals the instability of binary systems2.
RAW critiques the cultural demand for perfection while embracing the discomfort and reality of beauty maintenance. Through composition, material, and theory, the project dismantles dominant visual constructs of beauty and reimagines beauty as a site of honesty, tension and confrontation.
1 Kristeva, Julia, and John Lechte. Approaching Abjection. Oxford Literary Review 5, no. 1/2
2 Poovey, Mary. “Feminism and Deconstruction.” Feminist Studies 14, no. 1
