Ellis Faas Response - Identity Revealed The Western World

As part of my response to the video 'Identity Revealed' I wanted to create my own makeup piece that drew inspiration from the masks we wear within Western society. As a modern culture we do not possess many iconic masks that represent our society therefore I was lead to consider the types of masks we do wear, this lead me to the concept of cosmetic surgery and changing our appearances so dramatically that we are almost unrecognisable from our original selves. These masks represent our desire to hide our natural selves and permanently remove them from physical view. As a nation our dependance on our cosmetic appearance has become an obsession, it concerns me personally how many cosmetics surgery adverts there are on television, especially at 5 in the afternoon. I don't have any issues with plastic surgery but it seems to becoming to much of an 'easy option' that we can completely alter ourselves at the drop of a surgical knife. As our financial wealth grows so does our greed and we loose focus on our natural state and what makes us human.
The black mask within this look is representative of how we have lost our original selves and that our concept of what true beauty is is blurred and lost beneath the masks we wear. The gold eye is reflective of the black eyes that occur after procedures such as rhinoplasty or eye lifts but also the colour connotes how we are attempting to buy our physical happiness. The masks we create and portray as our own faces are an occurrence that is both painful and horrific when you think of the context of what occurs when we go "under the knife".