A project in appreciation to plastic beauty, Nadia Khashan and Lea Wennberg debut ‘Recent Sculptures’. “Ultimately, we want acceptance and lack of judgement to be extended to people who choose to enhance their beauty so that they feel comfortable enough to share what they have had done, if they choose to. “

We are celebrating the freedom of self-presentation. We are blessed to have so much freedom and range in the available techniques and technologies to look the way we want to look and to express our inner prima donnas. We are forever grateful for Botox, fillers, and silicon.

Plastic surgery has helped us to love ourselves in our own skin and to live fiercely. We celebrate those who stopped living on the side-lines because of their insecurities. Society is divided into two halves: those who are pro-plastic surgery, and those who are against it. We want to embrace the ones who got what they want and tell them, “YES MAMA LIVE.” We hope that one day no one shames anyone for getting work done or embracing the freedom to do what you want to do with your body, the freedom to live in your skin happily.

Was there a particular event or trigger for the projects concept? Can you tell me a bit about the evolution and formation of 'Recent Sculptures’?
There wasn't a particular event, but we would say we were triggered by people constantly comparing before and after photos of people who have gotten plastic surgery in a negative way. We feel these comparisons shame people out of admitting that they have gotten work done on their face or body. We felt the need to highlight the positive aspects of getting work done and appreciate those individuals for possibly gaining more confidence by enhancing or changing something about the way they look.

What someone chooses to do with the way they look is completely their choice, it’s a form of self-expression. Plastic surgery is not covered by any governmental health insurance so it’s not costing anyone who is not involved. We don’t see why there is a stigma about the topic. We can only be happy for people who feel better and more confident if they choose to get something done, especially if it was causing them to feel insecure about their looks.

What do you think of ORLAN'S piece Omnipresence (1933) as another performance feeding into discussions of body culture, and do pieces like this feed into your own work and opinions?
We think it is an interesting performance piece and it must take a lot of passion and courage to perform a live screening completely awake. We appreciate her thoughts on the topic of breaking barriers about sexes, genders and generations. Her message and purpose behind getting plastic work done is very inspiring to us. Fundamentally, the piece itself, or other similar work, certainly extends our knowledge about plastic surgery. Being informed is imperative for people to grow and accept one another.

'Recent sculptures' is a celebration of plastic surgery. Plastic surgery can be a blessing or a curse. For some people it saves their self-esteem, but in other instances produces role models that give people (particularly young girls) ever-increasing body expectations and standards. For example, Instagram has recently banned some of their most popular face-morphing filters that resemble products of plastic surgery. What do you both think about the more negative side of these debates that highlight plastic surgery as a double-edged sword?
We think the negativity and unrealistic body expectations stem from the lack of transparency about plastic surgery, which is a direct result of the stigma around it. If people are not constantly shamed about having work done and judged because of it, they could possibly be more transparent about it and feel comfortable enough to share the process. While we still have a long way to go to deconstruct the stigma around plastic surgery, people are becoming more aware of it, especially on Instagram.

Many plastic surgeons are now sharing their work on Instagram, showcasing invasive and non-invasive procedures that they do as a form of marketing, which is great because now people can be informed. Ultimately, we want acceptance and lack of judgement to be extended to people who choose to enhance their beauty so that they feel comfortable enough to share what they have had done, if they choose to.

At the same time, the popularity of plastic surgery has created a new form of beauty that has inspired a foundation for new creative freedom, with body and face morphing to re-design a figure into almost a different being. What do you think of these trends?
We completely stand behind the refreshing growing sense of freedom around body image expression. Having platforms to express this sort of creative freedom completely challenges people about constricting moulds that have been created for decades. Having media access through various platforms allows people to view and adopt trends from different places, which is a learning process. People are constantly growing and reforming their characters, so why not reform their looks as well.

Do you have any other upcoming work you can tell us about?
We have a few projects in the preproduction stage, but we recently started filming our next project, Dialog, which is a documented interview series that will be released monthly. In the series, we film other creatives who share their stories and inspirations in order to build a compelling data base for new creators to be inspired by or relate to culturally.