Faculty of Art

Drawing and Painting

Tiffany Duong

Barbspotting

With the viewer in the position of a Peeping Tom, Barbie (now not-so) secretly sheds the glamour of her packaging inside a public bathroom cubicle. Inspired by David Boyle's 'Trainspotting,' a 1996 film that explores the lives of young, British men addled with drug addiction under Thatcher's government.

“What would a normal person do? I ask myself that question a lot. I'm not an addict in the same manner as the Trainspotting lads, but everyone has their own guilty pleasures: too much screen time, too much alcohol, smoking, etc. I'm not one to judge, but society does. They tell you it's because it's bad for you, but can't a girl enjoy some self-destructive hedonism in peace?Barbie, as an inanimate object without thought or will beyond that of the child who plays with her, still exceeds normality in her perfection. Her body is representational of the human body, yet she is also something of a pneumatic creature with her overly-elongated legs and neck, waist snatched beyond human comprehension. With her archetypal normality in question, I proceed to provoke the definition of socially acceptable behaviours by considering how authentic manifestations of Self are impacted within private and public spaces, in the gaze of other people. However, the pressure to self-regulate is persistently felt as a woman since the gaze of the Other is always present. A public bathroom, in spite of its namesake, offers a brief instance of privacy within a stall to unzip the rawest, and possibly worst, version of myself without consequence or shame.”