Issuu

Perceptions 002

We created this publication to give space to the thoughts and expressions of our community. To open conversations, deconstruct perceptions of beauty and imagine new ones. Each issue is grounded in a theme, literal or abstract.

Publication design Editors Print 2

Vicky Chung Alexandra Grima Shauna Sieger Vicky Chung Pinky Print

This publication is collated and published on Gadigal land. We recognise the Gadigal of the Eora Nation as the traditional custodians and pay our respects to the Elders, past, present & emerging. Printed on 100% recycled stock. If you have found this copy it is 1 of 30 copies printed. Digital copy available at Foile.com.au

The theme for this issue is METAMORPHOSIS.

Excerpt from Brave Enough, Cheryl Strayed

Custom Artwork by Ana Gabrielle

“I used to see a butterfly in my mind’s eye every time I heard the word transformation, but life has schooled me. Transformation isn’t a butterfly. It’s the thing before you get to be a pretty bug flying away. It’s huddling in the dark cocoon and then pushing your way out. It’s the messy work of making sense of your fortunes and misfortunes, desires and doubts, hangups and sorrows, actions and accidents, mistakes and successes, so you can go on and become the person you must next become.”

CONTRIBUTORS

What is a moment that reshaped your perception of beauty? Debbie Tram Model & Producer

Jonas Nutter Naarm/Melbourne p.22-23 Architect & Designer

We occupy an increasingly neurotypical world where we are expected to read between the lines, precariously holding trust and honesty within the self-initiated state of ‘bliss by ignorance’. Beauty to me has more recently become the practice of honesty. On this journey for a happy(er) ending it’s the curious and contagious confidence instilled by owning your flaws celebrating your individuality that holds the most beauty. My celebration of beauty is constantly changing and seems to be so intimately altered by my surroundings, of both people and place. I feel it most when trying the least, with eyes wide shut, no secrets to tell.

Gadi/Sydney p.8-11

Is it possible to pinpoint a moment? Beauty is so fluid, always evolving and exists in all facets of existence. The last thing I remember thinking was strikingly beautiful was a perfectly voluptuous burrata resting seductively on a bed of basil, tomatoes and olive oil. Gorgeous.

Georgah Crane E-Comm Manager, Beekeeper & Model

Madison Finn Salon Owner

Naarm/Melbourne p.26-33

Naarm/Melbourne p.14-21

Having a child allowed me to discover a lot more of beauty within myself.

My perception is always evolving but I would say being surrounded by my wonderful friends has shown me all of the ways that beauty can appear. Beyond the superficial, there is so much beauty in the kindness that you show for others, the way you care for those you love and the way you show up for yourself. Beauty is whatever makes sense for you. 7

PULL UP THE ROOST, PULL UP THE ROOTS

The concept of change has always been one that makes me nervous still I always find myself in search of it. Our brains are hardwired to keep us safe, and for me, safety exists in the consistency of routines - in work, in leisure, in relationships, in skincare and wellness, in my usual iced oat latte - I love forming rituals and creating any semblance of stability where I can get it. I saw an astrologist last February and she told me was in the middle of my Saturn’s Return - a period of intense changes, obstacles, and self-discovery. In accordance, these past few years have really presented to me, sometimes rudely, how much growth proceeds the disruption of seemingly unshakable patterns and embracing of the challenges and vulnerabilities that come with it.

roost, pu e h ll t p u u

p e th

Pu ll

DEBBIE TRAM

roots.

Like most, the first big learning experience I encountered in adulthood was moving out of home. But perhaps unlike most, it wasn’t the expected or natural progression in my family household. As a second generation Vietnamese Australian and youngest child, it was more or less an expectation that I was to stay living at home until marriage - which to me may as well have meant an eternity. Any other reason would be interpreted by my parents as a betrayal of the highest order. I was twenty-four but was doted upon like a child, and I knew if I was ever going to learn what it meant to be an independent, responsible adult I would need to move, not just to a different suburb but a different state altogether. There is a certain grief in the process of change and the cutting of ties with familiar patterns, places, people, and feelings in order to welcome new experiences. I moved to Melbourne in 2016 and at the time I only knew one person there and had only visited the city maybe once or twice prior. When people would ask me the reason for my move, I’d always respond with “no particular reason” and that I just felt like a change of scenery. I barely knew anyone and no one knew me, and it occurred to me that I had also left behind a version of myself that carried inhibiting, self-imposed expectations of how I moved through society. In Sydney people knew me as shy and reserved, but here I didn’t have to be. I took this as my ticket to step out of my comfort zone, forge new connections and embrace opportunities I would have otherwise disregarded.

I started modelling in 2018 when I was approached by a scout whilst at work. I wasn’t sure what I was getting into but welcomed it as an opportunity to unfurl. I didn’t tell people about it at first because it felt awkwardly out of character. My parents didn’t find out until a year or so later when a friend of theirs pulled up next to a bus in Box Hill with my head on it. Colleagues didn’t find out until they saw me in the window of a store in the same shopping centre. Friends back home thought it was cool albeit uncharacteristic and even slightly amusing. That first year of modelling propelled me into a period of profound personal growth by allowing me to let go of a lot of hang ups and inhibitions I had about straying outside of my idiosyncratic shyness. Every experience in front of the camera coaxed me further out of my shell and represented for me the first shedding of my Sydney skin for my new Melbourne self. By opening myself up I got to meet so many special people and collaborate with talented creatives that came to define my community in Melbourne. The following year I started working as a scout and booker at the boutique agency where I was represented. Up until that point I had been at my previous job for coming up to seven years and used it to tether me from Sydney to Melbourne. I wasn’t fulfilled nor challenged there, but the consistency of the fortnightly pay check and knowing what every day looked like was a comfort that I clung to like a warm blanket on a cold morning. The day I quit I felt nauseous. Leaving a highly structured workplace environment for a small business with little to no formalities, I was in an awkward limbo of uncertainty for a while before I found a comfortable rhythm, but it was a fire I needed to light under myself to pull me out of my state of complacency. It showed me that I didn’t need to hang onto my idea of safety nets that only proved to be stifling in their reassurances. The agency side of the industry was so fascinating to me. I had been quite lucky so far with my experience in what I’d heard could otherwise be a brutal and unrelenting industry to some, and I wanted the same for the people I represented. I saw what an important role modelling agencies played in setting and breaking standards of beauty - the bodies and faces we see in fashion magazines and campaigns are only accessible to

brands if agencies champion their representation. I found so much joy and purpose in nurturing new talent and helping to define beauty in visual culture by bringing more diversity to fashion and commercial media. The agency eventually succumbed to the strains of the pandemic, but some of the talent I got to work with at the start of their careers continue to defy boundaries and achieve incredible things in the industry. After the 2020 lockdown it felt like the right time to wrap up my stint in Melbourne. It has been just over a year since I moved back to Sydney where I’m now working as a producer and creative artist agent (the astrologist also pointed out how the celebration of beauty in the type of work I’ve been involved with aptly reflect the multiple Virgo placements in my chart, go figure). In the six years since moving away I’ve had four different jobs, lived in four different homes and am only realising now that I haven’t had the consistency I thought I needed to feel safe and stable. I definitely felt all the growing pains of my Saturn’s Return and in some ways it feels like I’ve come full circle and landed back where I started, but there’s also something about returning home that makes personal growth and metamorphosis so much more obvious, even if only to yourself. Like many of us, I’ve spent a lot of the last two years being idle and maybe it’s the pandemic fatigue or a heartbreak induced restlessness, but now more than ever I am again searching for the next thing to disrupt my equilibrium and open doors to exciting and unexpected opportunities.

@debeh

Image by Ben Murphy

INTERVIEW

DAILA MELKIS

DAILA, Model & Environmentalist

How do your environmental values inform your relationship to beauty? D: I like to keep my relationship with skincare to be as natural and as real as possible. This means plant based, no bullshit, eco friendly always and bought from smaller local businesses. Because I love my Mumma earth way too much to disrespect her. If you could reimagine one outdated construct of beauty what would it be? D: If I could reimagine an outdated beauty construct it would be taking away society’s negative view on ageing, we sadly have have been taught to fear and resent the naturally beautiful process of ageing with so many products aiming to “preserve our youth”. It comes back to how capitalism + patriarchy has placed the appreciation of youth higher than older age, plus they make millions of dollars off making women/ femmes feel bad for a beautiful process in life.

Image by Beth Harris

What transformational change have you witnessed that gave you hope? D: The change I want to see is brands not marketing a solution to the most normal physical human experiences like acne, ageing, cellulite, scarring or body hair like it’s a bad thing. Loving yourself authentically will only make your life so much more joyful and whole.

@herb.baby

MADISON FINN

MORNINGS WITH MAIMIE & MADISON

MORNINGS WITH

MAIMIE & MADISON Photographed by Ellie King Scans by Lauren Bamford & Sarah Pritchard

My morning routine is very important to help me transition seamlessly from mum into business owner. I make sure I have a period of “me” time in the morning before my daughter gets up. It means I can get ready, style a unique look, put on a crazy eyeshadow- you know, look good, feel good. Which I also think is important in my industry to help inspire clients, be present in my work and as a mum! 14

Then when my daughter wakes up, I can be 100% present with her and we can do our thing before I’m straight into boss mode. These photos are of that special, slower time, in the morning, where it’s just us. It’s that little me time in the morning that sets me up for the day, and makes me feel focused and beautiful. 15

@madisonbymadison22

JONAS NUTTER

ove language. Like a bird takes flight or realises its own call, we sing of what we have learnt and know. And yet our first language is not one of sound or even sight, rather it is a physical and silently ephemeral dialogue, articulating a deeply personal and symbiotic exchange. When we work, we weave with inherent nostalgia, knowing not what guides us to create with such intangible physicality. Almost as if blindly uncovering objects and instances of such palpable individuality. In noiseless gestures, we perform the delicate and sensitive choreography of love and capitulate to the osmosis of life. This unrequited ceremony of speechless conversation exists not only between that of pulsing organs and active embryos, but embraces the objects of immaterial and tangible curiosity we choose to exist within.

The language of love, from one to another, or to one’s own self, is an art form as uniquely subtle or unapologetically robust as the beholder. It is the physical pronunciation, the audible vernacular, that with authenticity and intangible transparency, facilitates the amorphous complexities of self-expression. Numerous studies across fields of westernised academia and scientific research, alongside alternative practices of psychological and spiritual wellbeing, interpret the motions of giving and receiving love within five types of universal dialect.

LOVE LANGUAGE

The motions that propel and perpetuate the unique and often exclusive expressions of love are identified as; words of affirmation, acts of service, quality time, physical touch and the exchange of gifts. The sensual semantics of ceremony catalysed within these motions are akin to Maslow’s hierarchy of basic human needs, initiating their vital presence and practice within human existence. These are a kind of theological medication, a confession of faith, of emotional reincarnation, a prolific language of prayer, a critical performance of praise and intangible vitality that proclaims the universal identity as human. Prolonged periods of isolation and unavoidable social ostracism directly debilitate our inherent ability to practice and experience love and the performance of self expression. The present state of perpetual turmoil instigates their attendance as the indemnifying protagonist, the ephemeral ring leader and pessimistic catalyst accountable for universal demise. It is not a polite nor censored exposition of preference, rather a messy and illustrious tale of vulnerability that requires two napkins and an antibacterial cleanser. The last year of turbulent and unsurprisingly tumultuous restrictions have left many of us without means of self-expression, requiting imaginative modes of creative articulation and personal performance. While these mandated and masked hibernations irrevocably incite challenge, hardship and unequivocal trauma, the silver lining and preposterous light at the end of the bedroom hallway is the opportunity for an inherent self-awakening. The ceremony of leaving the house becomes the choreography of merely living and breathing.

We are a fickle and ‘hot footed’ race and even without the mandated staycations we are constantly searching for unique and undocumented modes of perpetual self expression. However as our previously unrestricted opportunities for external gratification have been reduced to an unattractive 1.5m tether we are forced to look where it really matters, probing beneath the metaphorical mask as means of emotional regulation. The immediate motion to self soothe and self medicate arose by bike courier or uhaul delivery, however as our free trials, entry subscriptions and complimentary shipping expired so did the agency to overindulge in compulsive self-wallow. Here lays the opportunity for self reinvention, solidifying the life-altering abnormalities of life ‘after the rain’, peacocking our newly inoculated ‘post pandemic’ pride.

Our rational emotions unravel along an visceral timeline, where subliminal and unavoidably tangible triggers ignite the cyclical rollercoaster of emotional action and reaction. Psychological research exhibits the offering and shared experience of food as the primeval regulator of behavioural associations, reckoning the dependency a child has on their parents for survival as the catalyst for the lifelong empathetic reliance on ceremonial nourishment. However, rituals around food extend far further than pure survival and sustenance, the symbiotic choreography of hunting, gathering, cooking and sharing is an intrapersonal vessel that facilitates vast social assimilation, rich cultural expression, and deeply personal exchange of emotion.

@good.thanks 23

INTERVIEW

THALEA MICHOS VELLIS

Thalea, Stylist & Art Director

What is something recent that is informing your current relationship to beauty? T: I have recently moved house. The process of packing up my bathroom and unpacking it in my new home made me realise how extra my beauty collection is. I’m taking the time now to minimise and simplify my routine meaning I have time to focus on everything around me. How do you find your work shapes your ability to express yourself? T: I’m lucky to be able to work in a creative field where I can consistently collaborate with my peers, this means I am able to nurture connections and friendships daily! I make sure I work on a project that feels authentically “myself” every so often as it is a reflection of what’s important to me at any given time.

Image by Costa Virtanen

If you ever find yourself out of alignment, what practices help you find your way back? T: If I find myself feeling a bit out of whack I take myself for a long walk or light incense at home. This is ever evolving.

@eye99

GEORGAH CRANE

BABY TEETH

@georgah.crane

“When I think about Metamorphosis I think about change and so I wanted to explore the connection between the way that bees build honeycomb and how that echos the curves of the human body. Bees are always building and adjusting the comb to accommodate the needs of the hive at any given time in the season. Similar in how we might rearrange the furniture in our homes or how our bodies react and conform to what is happening within us or around us personally. There are many parallels between people and bees, this is only one.”

Playlist Pull up the Roots - Talking heads

Higher - Budjerah

January blues - Phoebe Rings

LOVE TOO SOON - Tasman Keith

COMMUNITY LEADERS

KOORI MAIL

Koori Mail is a national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander newspaper representing the voice of Indigenous Australia. The recent floods saw devastating impacts on the Bundjalung Aboriginal communities. Koori Mail created the The Bundjalung Community Flood Relief to ensure that all donations provided will go into recovery efforts and supporting the homes and businesses that requires assistance and help in sustaining the community. Donate at: gofund.me/26ef7126

@koorimailnewspaper

Leaders and initiatives creating positive change in local communities. Ways to engage:

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