Painted Lady

Artist Kimiko Yoshida  has been transforming herself into various representations of herself and others in several series of self portraits (painting herself and then photographing it) since she began her career. She has turned herself into famous painters, brides from all over the world, blown glass letters and symbols and much much more. In fact she has created over 330 different self-portraits in the last decade.  While much of her work engages the viewer, it is her cosmetic application and consideration of colour line and tonality that reveals an incredible skill and a clear knowledge of the impact of cosmetic artifice.

Writing (Marrakech Henna).  Self Portrait. 2009

Writing (Tuareg Henna).  Self Portrait, 2009

Writing (Meknes Arabesque).  Self Portrait,  2009

Writing (Essaouiri Henna).  Self Portrait, 2009

Faking it

Giovanni Bortolani had been working in world of advertising for a while, a world where every picture must be processed in order to erase any little imperfection, where everything is glossy and unreal.  This concentration has given him the ability to focus on the human obsession with always appearing perfect, remaining forever young, the desire to construct a body with almost no flesh on it.  The subject of his work is the body, the frailty of appearance and the scars life generates.  Contradicting the myth of eternal beauty that survives the fight against time, the photographs for the FAKE TOO FAKE project debunk such conception and unveil the human fear behind the race.  

In discussing the aesthetic research behind his work he refers to the phrase "so beautiful it looks real" as a method of indicating a perfect artifact while manipulating the tiniest detail, and refuses to admire beauty for the sake of it.  His collaboration with hair and make-up artist Marcorea Malia  has transformed the appearance of the sitters into a cruel reality as evidence of this aesthetic concern.  As Malia works on the body, shapes the hair and paints the skin, suddenly a fig becomes an open wound on the chest, and boiled shrimps looks like entrails coming out of the body.  Later Bortolani manipulates the image so that the arm of one becomes someone else and infected scars look like a doodle.  Bortolani expresses this collaboration as catching ideas floating in the air to make them 'visible'.   To him, aesthetic is content.

 

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Marking out established territories

 Francisco Ben?tez

As seen on Behance.net.

Ah, but did it hurt?....

Giovanni Bortolani

The Bare Essentials

Make up artist - Billy Kidd

As seen on Behance.net

War-painted male models with elusive gazes.

Seen on fashion156.com
Jayden Tang - photographer; Makeup artist -  Kim Keifer;  Hair stylist Atsushi Ninomiya

Letting it all go

An estimated 700 revellers shed their clothes in favour of body paint to take part in Spencer Tunick's latest art installation at the Big Chill Festival in Herftfordshire this weekend.  This form of installation involving spray paint make up was a first for Tunick, by dividing the volunteers in to five colour groups: Yellow, Pink, Teal, Blue and Black, he paid homage to the art of Yves Klein, Mark Rothko and  Ellsworth Kelly.  One participant wrote on Twitter that he felt ‘somewhat liberated and invigorated’ by the experience. Another said the whole thing had been an ‘awesome experience’.  In the final group of setups with the Blue, Teal and Black, the painted participants were arranged in reference to the BP oil spill in the Gulf Mexico, as four rows of black painted participants interwove their way into a blue and teal sea.