The Pressure of Perfection
by Mia Nelson

My project is entitled “The Pressure of Perfection”, an idea that was inspired by my growing concern regarding how we currently have been set unrealistic and unachievable standard of beauty that is perpetuated by the media. I felt determined to focus on this theme during my project as I related to the intense pressure many people face to look and be perfect. I wanted to make this project truly personal as after suffering with an eating disorder for 5 years, I felt I wanted to channel how dangerous I know the pursuit of perfection in and how ultimately, you will never be satisfied. There will always be a new trend, or a new desired appearance and the constant chasing of this standard is ultimately futile as it will soon change again. Throughout my project I looked at many artists whose work related to my theme and how they too see the danger behind the false ideals that social media, advertising and the fashion and beauty industries promote. My final piece was inspired by my experiences with body dysmorphia (the act of your brain tricking you into seeing your body in a completely different way that was it actually looks like). I wanted to show how a person can see a completed false and distorted version of themselves in their reflection in the mirror and how you can completely lose your identity in the pursuit of perfection. I wanted to show how the media moulds our idea of what we should look like, and brain washes us to the point where we can’t even trust our own reflections anymore. Our reflection in the mirror can almost become another person that we don’t even recognise and how we can pick their appearance apart entirely. All this stems from our own poor self-image that we see as invalid due to the bodies that the media tell us ours should look like. I used a circular canvas to represent the mirror and scraped paint across my work to show how our brain distorts our image of ourselves. I am really happy with my project as a whole as I wanted to show that there are no positives to chasing perfection and that we should all learn to love who we are in the present as our appearance is ultimately the least important thing about us. We lose all of our personality and identity when all we care about is achieving our perfect desired look and I wanted to show that losing everything that makes you special and unique isn’t worth losing just so you can look how the media tells you you should look. I hope you enjoy my work