Illusion of Beauty

Illusion of Beauty, 76x91cm, oil on canvas, 2012

I started my new figure series with the piece entitled “Illusion of Beauty”, and “Sends in the Clowns”, gradually the ideas keep developed and evolved, then come the piece “Blessed” and “Choice”, next is the “The New Girl” and “Red”

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For “Illusion of Beauty”, the painting depict 2 women, one in the background is a traditional Chinese woman in ancient China society who foot were bonded, in those days, women who bond their feet (also known as lotus foot) will only consider as a beauty, accepted by society as a worthy “lady” for marriage. The tiny narrow feet of the "ladies" were considered beautiful and to make a woman's movements more feminine and dainty. Men were crazy over the tiny but deformed foot which emphasized on their hips, make the women swaying when walking, they considered that as sexy! In the front is a modern woman holding up a stiletto/high heel, the woman is painted as a clown/as a sarcasm icon to mock women in this modern era wearing stiletto/extremely high heels in the name of beauty and sexy. In actual fact the structure of stiletto, from the tips of the heel to the base of the front part is about the same length achieve by a binding feet, which make a woman’s hip sway too when walking. Although wearing a stiletto is not as destructive as binding one foot, but if wearing for a long period of time, it will caused health problem too, causing back pain and deformed the feet in long run.