San Francisco-based artist Laurel Roth builds these Peacock sculptures using many synthetic, shiny, and recycled beauty products that she dubs “human mating plumage.” Fake fingernails, barrettes, nail polish, false eyelashes, and jewelry are used, according to Roth, “to represent the choices involved in biological processes that are unique to humankind.”
Nail by nail, eyelash by eyelash, Roth creates these intricate and magnificent sculptures. From a distance, the pieces all have a new-product shine to them which gives each peacock sculpture a gorgeous glow. As viewers approach the sculptures, they begin to question the use of the individual products and consider the main issues–beauty and the human urge to modify itself–that is consistent in much of Roth's work. Many of the products are expired or donated from overstock from companies like OPI and Scunci, or collected from thrift stores and estate auctions that Roth attends.
