Plus-Size Parodies
For her Toy With Proportions series, Istanbul-based artist Nur Gürel uses layers of paint to alter thin models appropriated from magazines, taking them from impossibly slender to plausibly plus-sized — and at times uncomfortably overweight.
Clearly, Gürel is mocking unattainable standards of beauty, but not just that. She hopes to inspire dialogue about body image and the way in which we’re exploited by these highly photoshopped images, which are just as manipulated as her painted reinterpretations. The only difference is readers typically take falsified magazine adverts at face value, while Gürel’s creations aren’t intended to be disguised or polite.