AURA

A sense of vulnerability comes to light in Steph Bourazanis’ series: “Aura”. Using delicate objects and bold backgrounds, the London based artist creates visually provocative work that explores self-expression and the process of reflection and what it means to present ourselves as individuals through art, culture, fashion and beauty, presenting a distinctive aura. We as individuals are constantly surrounded by and are emitting different auras, creating and developing new styles or likes and dislikes based on tastes that are developed through a sub-conscious of reflection and observation. The auras that we emit are the very basis for our individuality through communication or visual representation. We have the chance to show off the best qualities of our personalities as well as the confidence to brand ourselves as unique through appearances and the creation of art. Bourazanis shows her subject Hebe’s bold characteristics through the self-expression of her art, fashion and her choice of posture. We notice through Hebe’s creation of dolls with majestic animal heads of a taste for cultural art; a self-expression explained in an object rather than a conversation. Through the choice of her fashion we notice the characteristics of confidence and experimentation, her jewellery selection fit to break a mould combining royalty with peasantry and garments that stretch from cultures old and new merged in a crucible of modern-day fashion. Words can not describe all of the facets that are deciphered from our first impressions of her aura but Bourazanis’ work showcases the true reflection of an aura that has confidence to express, experiment and create. A finished product of what it is like for an individual to go through periods of reflection finding the light that grants the strength to shamelessly emit an aura.