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| Flyer image: Gemma Browne, First Blush (detail), 2021, acrylic on paper |
I'm exhibiting my work 'Filter Veil', part of my Popstar Makeovers project, in the show Blusher: Art, Makeup, and Materiality, curated by Cathy Lomax.Filter Veil is a continuation of my earlier work Popstar Makeovers (2005), where I created over 100 pop star-inspired makeup looks for people to try on at events. Back then, I painted the looks directly onto people's faces. Fast forward to lockdown, and I reimagined these transformations as digital face filters, drawing from the glam and theatrical makeup of pop icons like Britney Spears, Siouxsie Sioux, and Pete Burns.
These filters were originally available to try on through social media platforms, Instagram and Facebook. While they were live, I projected them onto clips from vintage films, mainly black-and-white and silent cinema, layering pop star glamour onto the expressive faces of actors like Musidora, Vera Karalli, and Rudolph Valentino. The filters have since disappeared from social media, so these video projections are now the only remaining trace of that ephemeral work.
The project explores the intersection of nostalgia, celebrity image, and digital decay, mixing early film history with the fleeting nature of online content.
You can explore the original Popstar Makeovers project here.
Blusher - Art, Makeup, Materiality
July 12th - September 6th 2025
Open: 10am to 5pm Monday to Friday & midday to 5pm on Saturdays
Private view: Friday 11 July 6-8pm
7pm speeches, followed by a performance from Hilde Krohn Huse
Leicester Gallery
Vijay Patel Building
De Montfort University
Leicester, LE1 9BH
Makeup is a malleable medium; painterly and symbolic, with an ability to conceal and transform appearance. It is a marker of both female emancipation and our subjugation to the dictates of a patriarchal capitalist culture.
Makeup is often referred to as an art in glossy magazines and coffee table books. But how does art deal with makeup? The visual, material, and experiential connections, between making-up and artmaking are apparent, but makeup’s connection with femininity problematises it, connecting it to artforms and aesthetics rich in colour and decoration which have historically been considered trivial and unworthy of serious academic interest. Beyond this, patriarchal societies have always had a complex relationship with makeup; ill at ease with its role in beautification, deception, and sexual allure, but appreciative of a ’naturally’ made-up female face. Consequently, for long periods of history makeup has been a taboo in polite society.
Inspired by the formal transformative qualities of makeup, alongside its hapticity, role in ritual, and position in the commodification and codification of gender and race, Blusher unashamedly foregrounds this versatile medium, with work by artists that showcase makeup’s multifarious meanings in a variety of media.
Featured Artists:
Sally Kindberg, Alison Jones, Lindsey Bull, Annabel Dover, Cathy Lomax, Eugenia Cuellar, Cary Kwok, Rebecca Parkin, Athen Kardashian & Nina Mach Durban, Gemma Browne, Xingxin Hu, Karla Black, Alexis Soul Gray, Caroline Zurmely, Hilde Krohn Huse, Jennifer Caroline Campbell, Michael Fullerton, Lucienne Cole, Katherine Allen, Christine Stewart, Lucy Brown, Sarah Doyle, Mary Modha, Lisa Milroy, Madelynn Green, Matilda Moors, Kate Murdoch, Mo Throp, Erica Eyres, Fiona Roberts, Caroline Walker, Paul Kindersley, Rosemary Cronin, Ruth Heaton, Jennifer Merrell, Stacy Greene, Ty Locke, Rose Wylie
