STUDIO VISIT OF THE LOS ANGELES BASED CONCEPTUAL ARTIST ALLIE POHL, California

Allie Pohl’s work deals with projections of perfection and how they infiltrate our lives. Today’s individuals are inundated with images that culturally define how beauty is perceived. Often times, these commercially packaged versions of beauty are simply illusions created by advanced digital technology that proliferate the media. We are able to curate our lives through social media allowing the lines between the real and virtual to blur. Pohl created a symbol titled Ideal Woman, based off of the American cultural icon, Barbie. The logo has been digitally enhanced to the ideal female measurements (a social construct) of 36-24-36. The symbol, which serves as a kind of avatar, repeated throughout her sculptures, installations, prints, and jewelry forces the viewer to be aware of the unattainable nature of this “cookie cutter” form that pervades Western culture. It serves as an agent for change: to question the social constructs of perfection by holding a mirror up to society. Text and photos Brad Elterman