Brian Adam
You Are What You Wear
Painted tincans, copper, gold leaf, rhinestones
1998
Photography by Julia Brooke-White

Artist's Statement

Eyewear today is no longer just visual aid. It's evident by the way we put on looking glasses to transform the flaw of our deteriorating eyesight into a significant asset that they have evolved into another way of daily self expression. Frames as picture frames have supplanted the eyes, they mask, screen or mirror the face till the part stands for the whole. Eyewear is a metaphor for identity.

As you may have noticed, particular frame shapes are chosen by the appropriate people so it is indeed pleasing that there are many ready-made persona out there for adoption or modification. WWII aviator, plastic intelligentsia, gold trim, name-frames, apres-sporty wraps, wire frames (made in Italy), antifashion ug-glasses and things our mother wore. An icon now replaces the eyes.

I've made a range of tab-and-slot plastic-extrusion spectacle kitsch-sets for New Zealanders to cut out, assemble the tabs and say 'I AM'.