Made You Loox (W/ Faina Brodksy)

So it's funny, because we've followed each other on Instagram for a long time now.

And we have some mutual friends in common, but we've never actually met in person.

But I got curious by your social media presence and your work.

All right, so just to start the conversation off, this is something that I always think about.

is do you ever find that there's an antagonism in being beautiful and a woman and being an artist? Because I feel like the industry can be cruel and petty in these kinds of ways.

That is a very funny question, I guess, for me.

It's a big question, so I'll try to answer it.

in parts uh starting with that for me i would not perceive myself that way

so that's just part one

i grew up with my parents were from the former soviet union And one of the core concepts that I grew up with actually, which very much relates to this, I guess, is that a beauty is kind of like a social technology.

It's something that you do because it's a form of self-improvement.

I believe that this is the viewpoint that they also have in South Korea and other Asian countries, where it's just something that you do.

It's not something that you embody, which I think is more of how we Or how like in America, people see beauty as something that you embody or something that just sort of exists and you're not supposed to like work on it.

And I remember growing up, my mom, for example, she was a doctor.

And that was her like primary at the time because she worked so hard to be a doctor.

you know, she's not going to slack off and, you know, look bad.

So that was the way that I was taught to perceive this concept, which I think is kind of seeping in now into the Western world, like via...

these other back channels like the korean again like in korea this is a very similar concept that beauty is something that you do yeah

i've actually read a little bit about korean beauty standards they they literally consider um like ugly and fat people to be it's sort of greek they consider them to be morally compromised

i think that it's a little bit of a harsh way i'm not korean actually but there's this feeling like why would you Why would you put yourself in a position where you have less available to you? Like, why would you choose to give yourself less opportunities in life? That's, I think kind of the, there might also be this like moralistic aspect to it.

I'm not really, I don't really know, but that was always the way that I would, again, that's like how I was brought up was that you have opportunities that you can have if you just do these things? Why would you cut off avenues that are available to you? Um, and then there is this, I think the more American and Western view, which is a beauty, something that's that a woman like embodies and that like she radiates and it's like very, in a way, like attached to this cult of youth where you have like this small window of time where you have, you know, this beauty and like effervescence and like almost like vitality.

And then you like pass the age of 25 and you have to like get a nine to five and the wall.

Yeah.

So I think that these are two totally competing ideas, concepts.

And for me, just personally, I don't think that it...