“Frieze Week” Commission: Carlijn Jacobs, Picture Imperfect
Drawing on the themes of this year’s Frieze Projects Los Angeles, the photographer reflects on the seduction of the cosmetic image and very Hollywood constructions of allure, artifice and illusion
Drawing on the themes of this year’s Frieze Projects Los Angeles, the photographer reflects on the seduction of the cosmetic image and very Hollywood constructions of allure, artifice and illusion
In tribute to Los Angeles’s status as the “city of dreams,” mythologized as a place where youth and beauty are their own, incontrovertible currency, Frieze Week invited Carlijn Jacobs to reflect on the seduction of the cosmetic image. A photographer who declared “a perfect picture is never perfect; I just love estrangement and the feeling that something isn’t correct,” Jacobs’s images explore the construction of allure, built up in veneers of artifice and illusion, equal parts plastic art and plastic surgery. At a time when our perception of the true and the natural is being rapidly reshaped, the series asks: is beauty real? Or is it cake?
Carlijn Jacobs, Eye of the Beholder, 2024. Courtesy: the artist
Carlijn Jacobs, Eye of the Beholder, 2024. Courtesy: the artist
Carlijn Jacobs, Eye of the Beholder, 2024. Courtesy: the artist
Carlijn Jacobs, Eye of the Beholder, 2024. Courtesy: the artist
Carlijn Jacobs, Eye of the Beholder, 2024. Courtesy: the artist
Carlijn Jacobs, Eye of the Beholder, 2024. Courtesy: the artist
This article first appeared in Frieze Week, Los Angeles 2024 under the title “Eye of the Beholder.”
Further information
Frieze Los Angeles is at Santa Monica Airport, February 29–March 3, 2024.
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Main image: Carlijn Jacobs, Eye of the Beholder, 2024. Courtesy: the artist
