BELLA CARDIM

In 2020, when social isolation forced us to live through screens, constant exposure to our own image became unavoidable. Interactions happened almost entirely through cameras, confronting us with our reflection in a continuous and often uncomfortable way. At the same time, social media filters became increasingly sophisticated, slowly blurring the boundary between what was real and what had been altered.

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The Dysmorphia series emerged from this context. Inspired by body dysmorphia and by the experience of living under an emotional magnifying glass, I use fruits and vegetables as symbolic representations of the human body. Their natural variations in shape and texture are enlarged and distorted through lenses, echoing the discomfort of looking at oneself through a gaze conditioned to search for flaws.

There is no uniformity in nature, yet beauty culture continues to treat difference as something that must be corrected, concealed, or improved. By magnifying forms that are already imperfect, particular, and complete, the series questions why we have learned to distrust what is natural.

 

Dysmorphia reflects on the aesthetics of perfection, the influence of technology on self-perception, and the growing distance between the body we inhabit and the image we believe we should become.