Using the Christmas card as a vehicle in which to conceptualize my thoughts about the domestic life, family and perfection, I subverted the purpose of the tradition of merriment, news and joy by including truthful ironic twists and turns to the otherwise monotonous reporting of the year in the life of the apparent perfect family. With a mix of subversive satire, a nod to the elite class and a wink to the ridiculous consumer habits of the 1%, one receives a glimpse into the imperfect life of myself and the family.
An engraved holiday card, gilded in gold ink, accompanied by a 3 page latter, and a brightly colored portrait of a seemingly flawless family is used as a mechanism to identify with excruciating detail our failures and imperfections. By including unpleasant and uncomfortable news that would otherwise not be talked about or spoken of only in whispers, I call out my own discomfort with this tradition and the cultural norms around it. The image of the perfect family slowly dissolves into pixelated pieces of a whole, further emphasizing the complexity of the necessity to examine the truth of the big picture and the notion of things aren’t always what they seem.
