Unpacking Misguided Beauty

The 90’s. Crimped hair, black eyeliner, hooped earrings and copious amounts of Aquanet on what my mother called “rooster tail” bangs.  My dresser was filled with American beauty products.  Alongside of them were Eskinol, whitening lotions and soaps as well as creams containing sheep placenta that guaranteed to give you snow white skin.  My days as a teen and young adult were ruled by the thought that brown was dirty and unattractive.  The colonial mentality to dislike who I naturally am led to a self-deprecating internal dialog.  These were the days of Seventeen magazine and publications that claimed to uplift young women while pushing the interests of capitalism and corporate America. 

I made this suitcase to represent that youth experienced by me and many other Asian American teens.   The products are heaped on top of one another obscuring the view of a person’s face in the mirror and amplifying the products before it.