Sheila Pree Bright

While writing my dissertation about the media and celebrity influences on body image I did research on artists that were involved in this topic. One of these artists is Sheila Pree Bright.

I instantly fell in love with her work.  

The first project of hers that i found was Plastic Bodies. Here is an artist statement:

"Bright create images that critique society’s fascination with the unreal and morph human skin onto a toy figure, showing the fine line that is often drawn between reality and fabrication in American culture. French social theorist Jean Baudrillard describes this concept as “The Precession of Simulacra.” He states,

The concept of simulation suggests the fabrication of what is real through conceptual or “mythological” models has no connection or origin in reality. Instead of the reality, the model becomes the determinant of our perception of reality. Therefore ideal models presented through the media, such as homes, relationships, fashion art and music all become dictated by the given ideal. This creates a world of hyper-reality where the distinctions between real and dream like

are blurred.

Plastic Bodies series show the impact that media and advertising play in defining beauty for girls and women and how Barbie is used in Western culture to encourage one standard of beauty."


Whist reseaching her i found this project Young Americans

"Recently, Bright took the Young Americans portraits to the streets of Art Basel Miami   2012, wheat pasting eleven images in the Coconut Grove neighbourhood on building and abandon homes that are often unnoticed in the urban landscape.  Bright revisits the series which exhibited as a solo show at the High Museum  of Atlanta in 2008, curated by Julian Cox, Founding Curator of Photography and Chief Curator  of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. The work examines attitudes and values of Generation Y as American citizens. The series shows diverse young Americans, who are new to the voting system, and exploring ideas of what it means to be American. The sitters expressed their perspectives in a statement and posed in their chosen stance with the American flag. "



And then this one called Suburbia 


"Bright received national attention after winning the Santa Fe Prize from the Santa Fe Center for photography in 2006 for a series of work entitled Suburbia . The series takes aim at the American media's projection of the "typical" African American community and depicts a more realistic and common ideology of African American life. The series also explore the variations and similarities of an existence that subverts lifestyle and culture, particularly as it relates to Americanism."