I received a link from Amy Glass about an artist she saw a video about in class pertaining to plastic surgery. DH Cooper is a middle aged women who is feeling the effects of aging and is contemplating plastic surgery. She video tapes herself in the streets holding up a sign asking for change towards her face lift fund. Surprisingly a lot of people give money from what I think is out of amusement and not because they actually thought she needed surgery. She includes commentary battling with herself over whether or not she should go through with it and how she has stated that she is "ashamed that I've absorbed cultures messages about youth and beauty". I think that this statement applies to more than just middle aged women looking for the fountain of youth. It also pertains to young women who are looking for perfection via what media says and shows is perfect. The only difference between the young women seeking perfection and the middle aged women seeking youth, is that the young women have an insecure conscious and don't realize it is from the media they see everyday.
I also liked how a man on the street guessed her purpose by thinking it was artistic and a "fabulous statement about our times" and he looks at it as a "fabulous work of art". Ironically she was doing it in an art sense and if she wasn't then maybe she would have gotten offended. I just think it is interesting how someone looked at this experiment differently than most people walking by who were just staring and not thinking of the reasoning she was doing this. I also think that this was a test to the public to see how many people supported the idea of plastic surgery. Although it obviously wasn't for themselves, they thought about the idea for someone else and although most people said she didn't need it, they donated anyway.
http://vimeo.com/29116705
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