Physical discomfort has never been so evident. Barcelona-based artist Natalia Pereira’s photo series titled Dismorfobina exposes the visual interpretation of discomfort in one’s own skin. Amidst the demanding standard of beauty that is enforced by the media and the same pressures reinforced by society, people are forced to self-evaluate and focus on their imperfections.
Pereira’s series may appear somewhat silly with the abnormally deformed facial expressions created through the strains of the elastic band wound tightly around each subject’s head, but it seems to touch on a more serious topic. Like the title of the piece suggests, the collection of images draw attention to dysmorphia, or body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), a mental illness revolving around body image issues that results in depression and social phobia. On the artist’s site, Dismorfobina is defined as a “[d]isorder suffered by those who have been dominated by the habits of consumerism. This project reflects the deformation of our identity, when we desperately try to fit into a perfect mold that is not our own. A useless and endless quest to be what we are not.”
Dismorfobina is currently part of a group exhibition titled Naturalezas Humanas, translated as Human Natures, at Arenas de Barcelona through September 15, 2012.
