Kinesics

My work engages the fertile ground of our culturally- constructed world, a world that lies outside of our biological imperative but that is central to who we are, how we operate, and to what our aspirations connect with.

Kinesics is part of a larger body of work titled The Space We Are Not, which looks at the place we exist in between society, culture and the self. It is the negotiated space that exists between our innate sense of self and what society projects onto the self. This work engages ideas around identity politics, who constructs them, and who succumbs to this value-laden commodification.


Barbie has been an iconic toy in the acculturation of boys and girls for the past 60+ years. The volume of dolls sold (over a billion) has had a significant impact on social values by conveying through its beautiful body, accessories and idealized upscale lifestyle, a prescription for successful womanhood. The societal pressure to look and perform like a Barbie, around since the doll’s inception, is now augmented through social media and its capacity to alter reality and acculturating an ever-widening audience.

In Kinesics, the doll is repositioned into a vintage Pin Up; a celebrated sexualized female trope around since Barbie’s conception, but then through the collage of the clown emoji mask, a contemporary social meaning is constructed. This new cultural construct questions our naturalized desire for a culturally defined beauty and syncopates this systemic messaging through a modern semiotic lens.