M.F.A. Thesis Project: Skin Deep
Skin Deep
Mixed media installation by Jessica Dymond
June 1-18, 2011
Opening Reception June 10, 6-9 PM
I.M.A. Gallery (80 Spadina Avenue, Toronto)
Hours: Wed-Sat, 12-5 PM
Skin Deep explores issues of empowerment, feminine identity, and self-worth in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Visual representation of the Downtown Eastside and its residents is often problematic, focusing largely on the shock value of the neighbourhood’s most well-known issues: prostitution, drug addiction, HIV and, perhaps most notoriously, the missing women. While these issues certainly deserve attention, the focus tends to be on individuals-at-risk, rather than the area’s demonstrably strong sense of community, particularly within a feminine context. This multi-screen, non-linear documentary project is a re-creation of Beauty Night, a drop-in event which provides beauty services to self-identified, including transgendered, women in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. The project includes short video portraits of the women who attend Beauty Night, shown through two-way mirrors, as well as projections of the neighbourhood shot on Super 8 film. The goal of the installation, including the mirrored reflections, is to create a sense of self-reflexivity in the audience, and help to physically close the psychological gap in the social hierarchy.
Skin Deep debuted as part of the Doc Now Festival, in a group exhibition entitled B-Sides (with Maja Zonjic), from June 1-18, 2011 at the I.M.A. Gallery in Toronto, Ontario.
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The opening reception took place on June 10th, 2011 (event footage filmed by Halley Roback, edited by Jessica Dymond).
This project was made with the gracious help of many individuals: Credits for “Skin Deep.”
Produced in the Documentary Media (MFA) program, Ryerson University, 2011. © Jessica Dymond, 2011.
If you would like to read the thesis paper that accompanied this project, please email jessica.dymond@gmail.com.
For more information on Beauty Night Society, please go to www.beautynight.org.
