Painted Ladies, Space K, Gwacheon

Depicting scenes from London beauty salons, the work in 'Painted Ladies' explores the social, cultural and political space of these ubiquitous female dominated environments. The intimacy of the treatments which place the client and nail technician in close proximity suggest the community and social potential of these spaces where women come not just to have their nails painted. Based on a combination of snapshots taken through windows of nail bars and more considered photoshoots at salons with interiors designed to entice their female client base, the paintings are intended as something more than simply a document of these spaces and the women that occupy them. The very act of painting this process of women being painted engages the role illusion plays in the aspirational mechanisms of the beauty industry and these performed tropes of femininity.