Phoebe Mackenzie


“it is the function of art to renew our perception. What we are familiar with we cease to see. The writer shakes up the familiar scene, and, as if by magic, we see new meaning in it” Anias Nin

In a visual media saturated society we are  easily manipulated  unknowingly. This inspires me to take the familiar out of context and exaggerate its flaws to force us to look at our consumer capitalist society in a more critical way.    
My work explores themes to do with constructed identity and idealism projected on to us by our consumer culture. It is a surreal aesthetic manipulation of the viewer’s perspective.


Project description

The intent of this film is to influence and allure the viewer, like an advertisement  does, but not with the purpose to sell, rather, to reveal.

There’s a deliberately  powerful female semiotic in this film. Its focus has a female bias because society has  predominantly patriarchal roots, and the exploitation of women as a commodity is more extensive than for men. It is important to continue to challenge this subconscious language so that  personal  sense of self is not compromised.        

The project is a 5 minute looped film.  It is displayed in a dark room on a screen beside an oddly placed rail of curtain.  The projection is HD and the footage is pure HD.