Photographs, documents, materials, and sketches stacked up in drawers, boxes, and folders. Lingering in notebooks, on hard drives, and in storage. Tutkimus kauneuden politiikasta / Gaze Studies brings together more than seven years of Kaisa Syrjänen’s artistic research on beauty and appearance as social phenomena. The book consists of an avalanche of archival material, previously assembled into exhibitions, now offering a glimpse into Syrjänen’s background research. Through this somewhat chaotic collection, Syrjänen traces the demands, history, and ongoing presence of Western ideals of female beauty.
Kaisa Syrjänen is a Helsinki-based visual artist and journalist working with archives, photographs, and documents. She is currently studying sociology at the University of Helsinki.
The nearly 300-page book combines Syrjänen's own work with numerous archival sources. All texts in the book are in Finnish and English.
