My Eyes are Up Here

BY JACK WILBURN PHOTOS BY HADLEY FAIN

Brushes and eyeshadow palettes have become passé, while unconventional materials and impressionistic looks are taking the makeup world by storm. The abstraction of the eye elevates makeup artistry from a means of beautifying to a bona fide art form.

One artist who works to elevate eye makeup is Ophelia Liu, winner of season two of Netflix makeup reality competition show “Glow Up.” Liu’s Instagram, @in.templum.ophelia, showcases looks using a liquid silicone agent to create a chrome mold that drips from her face. In conjunction with a stark pop of green, the look embodies a futuristic and alien aesthetic. Liu also creates looks using crystals that are methodically placed to appear as if they drip from the skin. Her artistry combines elements of horror and beauty that leave a delightful, unconventional impression on those who see them.

Another artist who shuns convention is Court Kennedy on Instagram — @gothwok. Kennedy uses clippings from publications to create a collage of letters in each of her makeup looks. The messages these letters send range from silly recitations of popular videos to important statements concerning social justice. One of Kennedy’s looks, in particular, indicates a simple black eyelid in a half-circle shape which she covers in gloss, providing an unearthly black sheen, and she surrounds the look with a glossy tear and miniature star details. The clippings for this look said, “I still believe in good days”, a quote from music artist, SZA, which reflects the personal and emotional nature of Court’s artistry. Not every look is so serious, one reads, “Buy a man eat fish, he day, teach fish man, to a lifetime.” This phrase is clearly nonsensical, as it is lifted from a Twitter meme, but paired with paper butterflies and a glittering gray eyeshadow look, the silly message is concealed in unorthodox artistry.

The most undiluted version of unorthodox artistry is using no physical materials at all. Makeup has entered the virtual space, making more precise and impressionistic images than any physical product ever could. Instagram user, @animegvrl, uses the virtual space in her makeup artistry, mixing elements of the digital and physical worlds in her looks. Her most recent look pictures elicate, arcing, and crossing lines that inhumanly decorate the edges of her eye. She uses the same for her lips, which have an elegantly altered and indubitably alien shape. Her looks hold ambiguity in what is traditional makeup and what is digitally altered, making the viewer question their relationship to the reality of the digital space. Many people think that good art holds aesthetic value and causes the viewer to think about the art in relation to them, and these artists’ looks achieve both.