Barbie Is Alive and Well

Fountaine by Marcel Duchamp

Installation Art derived from the 1960's Conceptual Art (an example of this Marcel Duchamp's Readymade or Found Pieces that were everyday unaltered objects used to make a statement) and became famous in the 1970's. It is three-dimensional art that often uses media and is dependent on the space in which it resides. Performance Art, also became popular in the 60's with Yoko Ono's Wall Piece for Orchestra in 1962. This is a more interactive art where the performer becomes a part of the art piece. Both of these art forms are an expression of the modern age, bringing art to life.


In case you're wondering, this hasn't become an Art History blog. There's a reason for this contextual information; and it relates to this woman:

Valeria Lukyanova

Valeria Lukyanova, is a Ukrainian artist who decided to alter her appearance using make-up, contact lenses and plastic surgery to look like the embodiment of Barbie. The picture above is a real woman, though blogs and media sites have flocked to tout her as a fake. The criticism has rained upon her with comments denigrating her choice to look the way she does by amateur psychologists and finger-pointers calling her everything foul in the urban dictionary and claiming she suffers from self-esteem issues.

Why? She is clearly stunning but more than that she's very talented. She isn't a clinically deluded person at all. She is, however a performance artist with a very beautiful voice.

Many have accused her of using Photoshop to enhance her looks. or bashed her because she's used plastic surgery to enhance her body to Barbie dimensions. It sounds like a lot of sour grapes to me. It reads like jealousy. Many people have used plastic surgery to improve their looks whether they be famous or not. In an age where that is a possibility, those who can afford it can and will use it. Sure, there are those who abuse that and get too much work done, but that's not the case here. Let's put the Photoshop theory to rest with video proof:

I find it amusing that a person can be turned into a Klingon or Golem using make-up but in order for Valeria to look like Barbie, she has to resort to Photoshop. Valeria is living a role. She is a performance artist bringing to life an impossible standard of girlish beauty that many of us have succumbed to. Is she doing it ironically? Probably not. But does everything have to be ironic, snarky, angry or intense to be art? Nope. There are no rules to art. That's why they call it art.

If you're still not convinced that Valeria is an artist, here are two videos that I guarantee will enchant you:

She has a a hauntingly beautiful voice that mesmerizes with it's ethereal quality. Still not convinced that this is not just a deeply disturbed person trying to live a plastic existence? Watch:

Enough said. So why the firestorm of criticism and accusations being rained upon someone who is expressing herself in her own unique way? How can the same media that promotes unattainable beauty in movies, on television and in magazines become snark central when it comes to her? If you visit her Facebook page, you will see not only admiration (some of which is highly unsavory) but you will read comments brutally deconstructing her as a person. Social media at its finest.

Valeria Lukyanova is a performance artist of our times. She uses the tools at our disposal today to make herself living art. Maybe it's time we get over ourselves, our own sense of inadequacy and appreciate her for what she is.

Stay tuned! :)

p.s. I have challenged myself to post everyday starting in the month of December. Call it a pre-New Year's resolution ;)