Complexion Fans

The objects shown on the left are influenced by Victorian Era portraits and take the form of lithophane "complexion fans." Lithophanes were made of fine porcelain, a material that, when thin enough, is translucent against a light source, and in the Victorian Era, were often used as candle screens and lampshades. There are a few remaining “porcelain fans” in certain collections. Also referred to as “complexion fans,” these face-sized screens were employed by those who socialized about the fireplace. The screens were held to protect the face from the heat of the fire, which caused facial flushing (considered unattractive and vulgar at the time, as fair "porcelain-like" skin was the English ideal). The images found within the photographs and the lithophane complexion fans are portraits of a woman who dons facial prosthetics modeled after the noses and mouths of contemporary pre-operative rhinoplasty patients. By simultaneously donning these masks and the costuming of the colonizing body within the nineteenth century, I examine Western beauty paradigms and their relationships to the not so distant past.