She has created bronzes of herself with toned legs, tiny horns, a dissolving head and a monstrous tail. The Parisian artist and DJ, who is the inaugural artist of Tate’s Infinities Commission, explains why
‘W
hen I was a girl at high school,” says Christelle Oyiri, “we didn’t talk about plastic surgery. Now it’s normal for 18-year-olds to talk about what kind of lip-fillers they’re going to have. Something extraordinary has happened over the past 10 years.”
What has changed? It’s not simply about keeping up with the Kardashians, though Oyiri recognises that the reality TV sisters have revolutionised the desires of some. “Kim Kardashian,” she says, “made it fashionable for women to want to look like how I and other black women look naturally because of genetics.”
The bigger picture for Oyiri is something of primary concern to any visual artist: the power of the gaze. “We are seeing ourselves and being seen more than ever. That is what digital culture does. The gaze is omnipresent. Not just the gaze of others, but also the internalised gaze.”
