"There’s so much horror in some beauty procedures..."
Juno Calypso's incredible self portraits explore the dystopian nature of our quest for aesthetic perfection. Her work will make you rethink everything...
I first met award-winning artist, photographer and London native Juno Calypso a couple of months ago at an art fair. I joined a giant queue of people who, like me, had only bought entry tickets to get their hands on one of her limited edition prints. Thankfully I arrived early enough to snag one, or I would have legit cried tears of blood. (How dramatic! How goth! etc)
There’s a distinct reason for her popularity; not only is she unbelievably talented but the way she captures the complexities of beauty standards and rituals through captivating and emotive self portraiture is unrivalled, and highly relatable. Juno’s images are deeply personal works that reflect upon empowerment, isolation, loneliness, our obsession with perfection and those ‘oppressive elements of femininity’ so many of us struggle with. Working alone - often in retro hotel rooms - she’s created many recognisable self portraits dressed as her fictional alter ego, ‘Joyce’. Culture writers have said that "there is a sense of airless claustrophobia about much of Calypso’s work” and that her portraits emit “a delicate dance between comedy and despair," - that’s no mean feat.
There’s such beauty in her images, but also a darkness that represents the hidden cost of beauty, namely what Naomi Wolf’s book The Beauty Myth (1990) called ‘beauty work’ and the invisible burden of upkeep our relentless beauty standards require. I’ve felt that deeply and I imagine you have too if you’re here. Juno certainly has, as she explores below when I spoke to her prior to The Cult Of Beauty exhibition at Wellcome Collection in London. It’s an epic chat - enjoy!
Anita: So nice to see you again! So what work do you have in the exhibition? I’m excited to see the pieces.
Juno: You too! I've got two pieces in the show. One is where I'm standing in a very pink room and I'm wearing this plastic face mask - it's the Linda Evans facial rejuvenating system from the 90s (first image). And then the other one (below) was taken in my grandma's house in Malta in her bathroom, which was very retro and blue. Like tiles, a blue toilet seat cover, blue everything, and I'm wearing a Slendertone slimming system that has these vibrating pads on it that are supposed to contract your muscles like a workout. I'm also wearing the hospital underwear they give you after you give birth.
Anita: What was your inspiration for those pieces in particular?
Juno: I created them at the start of my career when I was about 23. Originally I had wanted to do fashion and beauty photography, but I always found photographing other people very awkward. I also found it strange that photographers have the power to ‘decide’ who to photograph - we pick who is worthy of being in front of the camera and who isn’t. So back then, I would pick my most beautiful friend, and take a picture of them, but then I started to think about why I was doing that.
So, I started doing self portraits instead, which I didn't feel comfortable doing completely, but it did feel more relaxing and more freeing because I was alone. They started out as quite dark snapshots of the feelings of disappointment and loneliness. Then I read Naomi Wolf’s book, The Beauty Myth, which rocked my world because she's so serious, so well researched and so angry, that it became the start of a revolution in me. That was when I started collecting more beauty gadgets to use as portrait props, and I realised that they look like horror and sci-fi props too. They’re like ready-made surrealism - and now there's even more of them! It was amazing the comparisons that Wolf made with beauty devices and medieval torture devices like the Iron Maiden. Now LED masks are everywhere and they're so expensive, and I really don't think they work, it's just another beauty device.
Anita: Was it The Beauty Myth that made you want to explore beauty, or did you have an interest in it before that?
Juno: That book articulated the way I'd been feeling my whole life. Beauty is something that I've always been obsessed with, the same way you describe your experiences in your book. I enjoy beauty too, but I’m also obsessed with it because that's an insecurity I have. I think everyone has their biggest beauty insecurities and for me it was always my body hair, and my face.
I also felt very sexualised for my body from a young age and felt a sort of disconnect between my face and body. Then I remember reading in The Beauty Myth about how it's socially acceptable to talk about how you hate your body and how you’re going to punish it through diets and surgery, and that's seen as acceptable because your body is the ‘sinful’ part of you. But the face is seen as this God-given thing that you're never supposed to touch, and I felt even more shameful about not enjoying my own face. Then that book made me realise that this disconnect with our faces as part of our bodies is a form of dysmorphia many of us have.
Anita: There does seem to be this sort of darkness to some of your work as well as it being really beautiful - what does that represent?
Juno: I think it's just the darkness I've always had inside of me and my self portraits bring that out. I've always felt sensitive, I can easily upset myself and my imagination can take me to sort of dark places, but then I’m also curious too. Like your book says there’s a heaviness thinking about the ways you've been let down by the world. As a child you feel so free and then suddenly you're handed all this shame of ‘you're ugly’, and ‘you're weird’, so there's a lot going on inside that you just kind of squashed down. I guess my work was a way of expressing that feeling really, and I enjoy making people feel a bit unsettled - and people relate to it.
Anita: A lot of your images seem to have sort of like this sort of mid century feel to them - is there something about that period of time that's interesting to you?
Juno: I think visually it's just more exciting to look at - take the colours of my grandma's bathroom in that blue picture. It was pretty much all blue and her guest bathroom had pink curtains and accessories - I loved the way they were decorated. The bathroom is where most of our beauty rituals take place and even though you’re in the ‘prison of beauty,’ at least back then they were decorated nicely. Now our bathrooms are just grey or white and look like a hospital or a clinic.
Anita: I’m fascinated to know how you get into character? Does Joyce feel like an alter ego or like it’s still you but just dressed up?
Juno: I think for me the wig is what makes it feel very different to being myself. In the beginning I had a very big wig and these fake teeth as well and that was the only way I could face seeing myself so much on camera, because it didn't feel like me at all. I was caked in so much makeup that it felt like a costume or like I was playing a clownish character in a pantomime. And then, when I really didn't feel good about myself, I had all these masks that I could use to just completely cover myself up and then I felt a bit like a puppet.
I sometimes feel like I've put myself in this corner of being a self portrait photographer, and there's a lot of times where I don't want to do it and I'll just completely rebel against it. I won't pick up a camera and I won't take a picture or be productive at all, and then my self-esteem will get even lower because I'm not being creative. So then I'm stuck and think what do I do? I don't want to take pictures of other people, because then that feels more like pushing beauty standards; taking pictures of models won't help me feel good or make other people feel good too.
When I'm in a good mood and I feel like a character, then it's fine, but most of the time I'm still like ‘this is me, and it feels weird’. Taking pictures of myself so much does affect me, because there's a lot of times where I don't make any work. It takes a lot out of you, you have to be in a really good mood to do it. And there's been times where I've been in a terrible mood and been crying while taking pictures of myself, and they’ve ended up on the cover art magazines. That’s amazing, but I still think about how horrible it was at the time and question ‘why do I do this?’ Is this just an extension of the obsession and insecurity I have with myself, and maybe I could have a job that's a lot simpler and less of an investigation into myself every time I work, because it can be a lot.
Anita: Yeah, I imagine it’s exhausting and something people probably don't see, either…
Juno: Definitely. There are always the creative failures that we nobody else ever sees. Like technically something might not work, and then there can be these deeply personal feelings of shame, especially when you're the subject of the image and you tell yourself ‘and I look disgusting as well.’ Photography - and particularly self portraiture - can be too much; we weren't supposed to see ourselves like this, or so much. Our brains aren't ready for it, that’s why selfie culture makes us so miserable. I have been thinking about painting next, and maybe sculpture.
I'm also 34 and ageing is on the horizon and I don't want to be restricted by that. There was a time where I wanted to champion that and I thought ‘Of course I'll carry this on when I'm older, and it will be interesting because of the way I'll change’. But that is so utopian.
Anita: Is there anything that you found interesting recently, or inspired by?
Juno: I've been reading your book UGLY, Emma's Dabiri’s Disobedient Bodies and there’s also another book called Saving Beauty by cultural theorist Byung-Chul Han. It's a philosophical take on beauty and how our understanding of what beauty means is wrong and that's been interesting.
I also look at procedures myself sometimes and think ‘maybe I need that?’ But then as an artist, I am fascinated by the way they're presented. So I've been looking at buccal fat removal, where people get the fat from the cheeks removed. There's this one surgeon on Instagram and after he does the procedure, he puts these two lumps of fat on people’s faces and takes a picture of them. It’s like it’s some proud moment as if it’s a tumour he’s just removed - but it’s these two bright yellow fat lumps on their cheeks, but it's just fat and it was meant to be there. These women also look pretty out of it - they've just been under anaesthetic and now they've got these two like blood tinged, fat lumps on their cheeks. Visually, I love the way it looks, but there’s so much horror in some beauty procedures.
Anita: You used to take pictures of ‘Joyce’ as a way of critiquing femininity, but then you said you were starting to see that the issue is actually how society treats women who invest in their appearance?
Juno: I think there was a point where choice was what was seen as ‘feminism’. Even in your book you said that there’s the idea that ‘if it makes you feel better, do it’ - but it’s not that simple, and we’re not always aware of why we want these things. It seems like people understand that more now. When I was a teenager in the nineties and noughties it was completely different and there was a complete double standard - you were damned if you do, and damned if you don't. You had to be gorgeous, but if you're vain, that's a sin.
Even when we have these conversations about beauty, you hear people saying, ‘oh, it's terrible with plastic surgery, everyone looks the same, they've all got the same face’. But we’re still demonising anyone who's done anything about their looks and in a way that reinstates the idea that you should just be naturally beautiful. It’s fine for those who won the genetic lottery and come out naturally beautiful but if you've tampered with your looks, that’s bad. Even people who are progressive and forward thinking and feminist are still saying ‘oh dear, what a shame, you looked much better before, or I prefer you without makeup’. I hate all of that stuff because they think they're being helpful, but it's completely unhelpful.
Anita: It’s all so subjective isn’t it. I find it wild that you've had issues with how you look because to me and the people reading this, you’re gorgeous. But it’s how we are made to feel that is the issue right?
Juno: Yes, I don't like to buy into that whole conversation because it’s not the point. The point is that I feel this way and that's a problem in itself. Maybe it’s also something to do with being ‘almost pretty’. Usually people that I think are stunning are really insecure, and maybe it's because they're just like one step away from perfection that they feel even worse - I don't know.
Anita: That is an interesting idea. I think with a lot of people it's because they've based everything on their appearance and then as you get older and your looks change, it can be hard to deal with.
Juno: When my grandma was like aged 90, she had five different boyfriends and I love that. She had bright red hair, she loved going out dancing and they thought she was stunning. She really stood out, but if I ever tried to take a picture of her, she would get actually upset and quite angry and say ‘no I don't have my makeup on’ or’ I don't have my hair done’. Like she felt really repulsive even at age 90, which I found sad.
Anita: Do you think there's been a shift in how you see your own beauty through your work? Has it been healing in any way?
Juno: There have been moments of healing; for instance, initially my work felt liberating because I was making a joke out of it. Then there were even moments where I took pictures for a Burberry campaign and, because I'm in my own work so much, they suggested ‘why don't you jump in this shot and be in this picture?’ So I ended up being on a billboard and there is that moment where you're like, ‘all the people that called me ugly or whatever at school, look at me now!’ But that does fade, and insecurities can be so deeply ingrained that they might last too - I wish I could say it’s all been healing, but I don't think it's linear. That's what feels like the curse we've always had with beauty standards.
A huge thanks to Juno for chatting to me, check out her work below and please do like and share this with somebody else who’d like it.
FURTHER CLICKING
Follow Juno on Instagram here
Shop from Juno here and buy her artwork here
Find out more about The Cult Of Beauty here
A friend once sent me side-by-side pics of all the makeup brushes and tools laid out to be used for her face at her engagement party by her makeup artist, and the table full of surgeon's tools she used professionally (she was a surgeon and thought it was funny).
This was in 2015 and meant as a joke, but the resemblance was stronger than she'd initially thought. Glad to know we weren't alone being a pair of crazies about it, not so good to think about how compulsory and rigid that 'third shift' feels. It's still legitimately insane to me that we got to the point where women were told they needed a Brazilian wax to be 'clean', when something is part of a standard to that extent then how much of a 'choice' is it really? Juno is right when she says women can't win either way - see: Bella Hadid.
The Beauty Myth is such a good book! I've written part of my aesthetic philosophy dissertation on it :) I loved the interview and the pics, thanks for sharing.