1media/Screen Shot 2025-10-30 at 12.04.30 PM_thumb.png2025-10-30T12:06:45-07:00Jiayi Yan23be9480f1237e5ecea49d46bad6bf57a78fc212478542The armpit hair is cut out from a picture of Julia Roberts in 1999. The bush thong is a newly released product by Kim Kardashian.plain2025-10-30T13:43:46-07:00Jiayi Yan23be9480f1237e5ecea49d46bad6bf57a78fc212
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1media/Subject.png2025-10-30T11:42:16-07:00It's BUSH Season!6This session means to reclaim while reflecting on the current cultural trend to re-naturalize, aestheticize, and commercialize body hair.plain2025-10-30T14:35:19-07:00Woman with Hair Bitten by a Serpent
The poster is based on the sculpture Woman Bitten by a Serpent by Auguste Clesinger in 1847. Under the commission of Alfred Mosselman, the sculpture depicts his mistress Apollonie Sabatier whose body is envisioned as hyper-sensual and erotic. I see this image as a perfect example of how a woman's physical body is constructed to be an alluring myth, even in her afterlife.
I appropriate this myth--this smooth, pure yet erotic body--to think about the current discourse around body hair. I was taught to hate my body hair and forced to aesthetically sanitize myself, and now, like many women, I'd like to embrace what I'm born with. However, I also recognize this gesture can easily be co-opted by capitalism, just as many other cultural feminist ideals. Considering the aforementioned, I'd like to play into the modern myth of Apollonie who wears Julia Roberts's once controversial armpit hair and Kim Kardashian's SKIMS new bush thong, which seems to naturalize the stigmatized body hair but creates another commercialized artifact.
