kids of dada

LAURIE SIMMONS: HOW WE SEE

Is our desire for perfection worth the sacrifice?

by Ellie Howard

Not an artist to shy away from controversy; Laurie Simmons probes into the darker aspects of Internet culture and the control it exerts over modern society. Holding a mirror to our obsession with self-perception and identity, Simmons asks: is our desire for perfection worth the sacrifice?

Laurie Simmons with her daughter Lena Dunham

In the artist’s recent body of work "How We See", Simmons draws upon the online “Doll Girl” culture, a community of people who alter themselves to look like Barbie, baby dolls, and Japanese anime characters through make-up, dress, and even cosmetic surgery.

Photographed against acidic bubble-gum backdrops; a succession of lacklustre, doll faced models pose awkwardly, as if being snapped for their annual college yearbook. But the image has a disturbing element – the model’s faces are drained of human emotion and eerily painted eyes complete with false lashes are overlaid upon their delicate eyelids. Simmons is a surrealist at heart, and this provocative series is no exception.

By photographing these young models and trans-women together, Simmon highlights the problems of self-worth and identity that govern our fragile society. In a world over-saturated by imagery and peppered with unrealistic expectations, we continually edit every facet of our own image. “How We See” is a troubling reminder of our self-delusion and painful awareness of self, as facilitated by social media. Simmons reflects on society’s quest for perfection, asking what happens when filters and cropping aren’t enough. What sacrifice will be made in order to acquire that next unobtainable standard?