Amber Gent
BA (Hons) Photography
GBLN
More than ever humanity is beginning to feel the pressures of modern living as we suffer through a cost of living crisis while still recovering from a global pandemic all under the looming threat of catastrophic climate or nuclear events. As we collectively attempt to survive under this late stage capitalist hellscape a rebellion has emerged and it takes the form of a goblin.
Are we supposed to care about Instagram aesthetics while our global temperature rises? Are we supposed to maintain a spotless environment and healthy lifestyle when countries threatens to destroy each other with nuclear weapons? The permacrisis makes beauty culture, gender norms and societal pressure seem insignificant leading to this attitude akin to the teachers attitude on your last day of school before the Christmas break, the attitude of the goblin.
This goblin attitude is an unapologetic act of self care and inner healing, we allow ourselves to regress to that childlike state of nonchalance, when societal pressures were beyond our understanding and we existed in a state of selfishness, indulging our wants and desires unapologetically. Should we ordinarily feel the need to apologise for being self-indulgent? Assuming no-one is being neglected or harmed in the process, don’t we deserve to indulge our desires on a regular basis?
Goblins are the ultimate anti-aesthetic, they embrace the comforts of depravity without fear or judgment, they indulge their every desire and reject capitalist beauty culture; practising ambivalence as a coping mechanism. We are reclaiming and redefining what it means to be beautiful and successful, turning our backs on stringent aesthetic guidelines that have dominated our lives and Instagram feeds for so long in favour of authenticity and freedom. No longer do we worship the “it girl or the clean girl” we worship the goblin.
The work within this project discusses all things goblin. It is a celebration of our generations feminist movement, a rejection of the idealisation of the female body, toxic beauty cultures and the never-ending chase for perfection. It is an exploration of authentic femininity, honouring both the beautiful and the grotesque that exists within all of us with unflinching honesty.
