I had this idea when I was removing my makeup. I saw my mascara and eyeshadow residues on the cotton pad, and I thought this is what I do spending half an hour every day in the morning to look presentable. The time, half an hour came into my mind, it made me think how much time and efforts people these days spent on appearances. Nowadays, appearances are significant for most people. Thus they spend times on picking out the clothes; the shoes that go with the clothes; the makeup that matches the outfits. Moreover, people spend times shopping for clothing, shoes, and bags to look more presentable. Time is an important factor; it can be passed in various ways, dressing up is only one of the ways.
I thought of photoshopping my used cotton pads onto my bare face without any makeup. Since the makeup can transfer on the cotton pads, I think it would be interesting to transfer my eye makeup, lip makeup, etc. onto my face. Moreover, the placements of the cotton pads are irregular; they can be placed anywhere on the face. By combining these two factors of time, it demonstrates how the only difference between the start and the end is time.
Rough drafts that I did for the time capsule project.
For the Time Capsule project, I took an alternative approach. I am trying to express the idea of time being unnoticeable yet significant in people’s lives. In the photograph, the used cotton pads are attached to my face vaguely, and they became parts of my face in a way. Thus it illustrates the idea of how the only difference between the beginning and the end is time. The used makeup pads symbolize the time that I have spent on my appearances. Nowadays, people put on makeups before leaving the house and remove their makeup after they come back home. Time is an essential factor during the process. Depending on different situations, time can be a rush, or it can be relaxing. I want to illustrate how time passes away without any notices. It slips away from our finger. We can not catch them or describe them accurately. Thus I created these blurry and faded feelings of the cotton pads to illustrate how time is never solid, it is more like an abstraction. Personally to me, time is a distortion. Thus I utilized the used makeup wipes as the background of my work. The wipes are stretched out and distorted. Each floating used makeup wipes can represent the amount or the length of time a person spends doing makeup. The efforts and time that other people and I put into appearances are insignificant yet significant.
