Katja van Heugten

In search of perfection

Department: Man and Communication
Website: www.katjavanheugten.nl

Revealing Beauty

Shaving, diets, fitness regimes, cosmetics and surgery: we stop at nothing in our quest for beauty. In a world obsessed with looking good, Katja van Heugten has made a bodysuit to highlight how our bodies have become ‘objects’ that we alter at will. Different areas on the suit refer to chapters in her book cataloguing related cosmetic procedures. Here, Katja confronts us with an eye-opening scenario: all around the world, we are trying to live up to a certain beauty ideal; but this differs in every culture. What they have in common? How difficult these ideals make it for us to accept ourselves as we are.