Note Type
Artist StatementNote
Retrieved from the Enamel Arts Foundation website: [https://www.enamelarts.org/deformed-beauty/]
According to Hur, her “Deformed Beauty” series, of which this brooch is a part, explores the ways in which women are forced to conform to stultifying – and often painful – forms of beauty. “The brooches in this series lend a visual context to human desires (especially women’s desires or rather the desires imposed upon them) and the vulnerability of women to curious notions of idealized beauty, often distorted by cultural sensibilities. In each of the brooches, a human hand becomes the surrogate embodiment of the practices.” In this work, the bound finger is a stand-in for the Chinese practice of foot binding. This practice is known as “Lotus feet” because of its resemblance to the lush blossom.
[IR 06/25/2025]