If you ask the artist Alba Zari, women are still too much influenced by Snapchat filters and male ideal images, with that we maintain a wrong image. In the Eindhoven MU she presents ‘Fear of Mirrors’, an exhibition with which she wants to draw attention to how we look at ourselves in this digital time.
Just before opening, the Thai artist walks a little restlessly through the space. She puts a screen straight, puts a book open on the correct page and wipes fabric from a cover. “This show in Eindhoven is the first solo exhibition,” she says nervously. “I want to show how women portray themselves to the world and about what that does with the image we have of ourselves in this digital time.”
The ideal selfie
The idea for the works arose when Zari studied Pamela Anderson. She admired the busty actress as a style icon, but discovered that Anderson is suffering from requirement perspophobia: a deep fear or shame to see yourself in the mirror or on photos. “She was worshiped by millions, but could hardly look at herself. Then I started to wonder: how today women actually look at themselves, in a world where everything should be perfect?”
Zari speaks from experience. “There is a kind of ideal image to put yourself on Instagram, but with all those filters and ideal poses we create a false world and that is a social problem,” she noticed. “As a result, young girls suffer from requirements or do cosmetic procedures to look like the filters as much as possible.”
In this exhibition, the Thai people want to make people aware of how they look at themselves through the camera of their phone. There is enough room in the room to experiment with it. “Behind the filters is a real person, often with uncertainties and struggles. We can appreciate the neutral more.”
Do not go through
Visitor Helen came to the exhibition early: “It seemed like an interesting subject, because I often see female bodies on social media and how they respond to it. Men are portrayed differently than women and it is good to be aware of that,” she says firmly.
If she scrolls through the social media, she notices that the use of filters to make everything look perfectly looked so normal that you would almost forget that it is not the reality. “This exhibition makes me think a little more about it that we should not go through in this, I think the message is that neutral is also beautiful.”
The gaze of men
Zari based her work on extensive online research. For example, she searched for ‘beautiful woman’ and then mainly saw stereotype images that are still masculine. “Although men also increasingly have to meet an ideal. Yet the pressure in women is often higher, the male perspective still determines what we like.”
The artist hopes that we embrace imperfection – the not ideal picture – a little more. “Filters really don’t have to go, you can have fun with it, but don’t see it as a better version of yourself, because it’s not real. Be aware of it.”