The Assembly

Amelia Ford // One and the Same

 
 

One and the Same, oil paint on birch cradleboard, 24" x 36", 2021.

 
 

How is sustainable social equity possible without the acknowledgement of unsustainable objects? I view these objects as evidence of inequality, and the evidence exists among us, with us, and for us. In my painting; “One and the Same”, I present this evidence as a blow-up doll, both environmentally and socially unsustainable, a fake plastic body is humanized to dehumanize us. They meet the needs of many, are alternative options to real human exploitation, yet, they are unsustainable as they simultaneously normalize and regulate the objectification of the human body. My work re-contextualizes the existence of these human-like objects in order to better understand, emphasize, and cope with their existence, for myself, and for my viewers. Today, Uncanny Valley-like “humans” are manufactured beyond the scope of sexual companionship; they are becoming partners, lovers, even friends. Can we sustain social equity by addressing the void blow-up and sex-dolls fill?

 
 

Detail of One and the Same, oil paint on birch cradleboard, 24" x 36", 2021.

Detail of One and the Same, oil paint on birch cradleboard, 24" x 36", 2021.

 
 

Amelia Ford is a painter and guest on the unceded territory of the Syilx (Okanagan) Peoples. Currently completing her fourth year in the BFA program at the University of British Columbia Okanagan, she is an emerging artist engaging with human and object relationships. Amelia’s paintings establish sites of observation to mediate human and blow-up doll interactions that foster critical evaluations of what these human-like objects signify and represent. Curious of how paint is capable of rendering human and plastic skin, her use of oil paint blurs the boundaries between what is real and artifice.

If you would like to learn more about Ford’s work, follow her on Instagram.