Hein Kuhn Oh’s Cosmetic Girls Hein Kuhn Oh is a South Korean photographer who has done pho
Hein Kuhn Oh’s Cosmetic Girls Hein Kuhn Oh is a South Korean photographer who has done photo exhibits on several topics. Cosmetic Girls focuses on female high school students, girls whose ages are hard to guess because of their make-up. Even though they represent a large part of society, they are subjects who are often treated as insignificant, never allowed to stand at the centre. As an observer, the artist’s gaze is inquisitive and yet at the same time sympathetic to their sensitivity. Girls who are often objectified in terms of sexuality and are forced to take on stereotypical images and in these photos they are portrayed with notions of emotional unease and unstable identities. Like this, Oh approaches his female subjects, watching them objectively, yet creating a space that is sympathetic to them. The particular tension brought up by this ambiguity is said to be the most powerful drive in Oh’s portraits. His artist’s statement begins with the dictionary definition of the English word ‘ambivalent’, and so the girls in his portraits might be seen to have a significance that derives from the fact that they are standing as ambiguous beings, without a fixed position, as neither children or women. They are still intrinsically children, with a limited view of the world around them, but because of this they might rashly be seen as women because of their appearances. Between these two conflicting points, their personalities drift and their identities are elusive. Oh has been struggling to capture the sense of anxiety derived from the obscure ontological position of teenage girls. Girls within the photos are seemingly both children and adults? It is hard to guess their ages, an uncertainty is felt through eyes that wear colored lenses, while the clumsily done make-up reveals indescribable nervousness. However, these attempts are not skillful enough to hide signs of their immaturity, such as acne, crudely applied makeup, flushed cheeks, blood-shot eyes (because of the lenses), cuts and scrapes on the body, or socks with cartoon images that don’t go with the rest of what they’re wearing. These can be said to be signs of immaturity disguised behind a mask of maturity, as if they were unripe fruits that had been artificially ripened, with their skin appearing to be properly colored, yet the insides still sour. all opinions are that of the artist. -- source link