Pretty, 2021

Artist Statement:
 

Pretty is a five minute, thirty two second interview based documentary that utilizes a plethora of sourced material including interviews, personal childhood recordings, photographs, and public archival video from the 1940s. The video is built around interviewee dialogue by juxtaposing imagery and film to both support and challenge the conversation. Curating a narrative that investigates the concept of prettiness, interviewees are asked questions about how they engage with the idea of being pretty on an individual and societal level. The film’s editing process was inspired by Shelly Silver’s 2004 work, What I’m Looking For, by playing with pacing as a way to emphasize and examine certain photographs. The video is also used as a personal unraveling of my own contorted relationship to the word pretty.

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Starting in 2020, I began to document intimate photographs of my skin. These photographs were a way to process my dermatillomania. I knew when I began collecting them that I would eventually want to include them as part of a larger project, which has manifested into the video work today. Without revealing a definite conclusion about what it is to be pretty, the work challenges viewers to consider their own relationship to themselves, others and the mirror.