Am I beautiful yet?

Jiayi Chen is a photographer and Contemporary Art student at the University of Edinburgh College of Art. Her work focuses on social commentary and critique through a diverse mix of material and practice.

Her work is a stunning exploration of the cosmetic industry, plastic surgery and the eternal pursuit of beauty. She questions the ever changing cycle of aesthetic enhancements, and simultaneously comments on the western centric markers of beauty which have spread to a global scale; small bodies, light skin, blond hair, blue eyes.

If you're in Edinburgh, you can find her work exhibited at the Patriothall Gallery in Edinburgh from January 28th to February 3rd.

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Beauty is an attribute that needs to be viewed in order to exist.

For a long time, women have been required to pursue a patriarchally defined aesthetic quality through which their worth is judged. Since the feudal era, the world has not regarded women as human beings. The evaluation of outsiders is always more important than the women’s own thoughts. Globally women turn to plastic surgery to become “better” version of them, to feel accepted and valued. It is this replication of an ever changing beauty standard which is reflected in my work through thousands of similar eyes and lips and hair.

Ultimately the question remains the same: Am I beautiful yet?

Since the feudal era, the world has not regarded women as human beings.