Everyone was frightened about Gwen. Someone who was clearly concerned, wrote, “Someone needs to envision on Gwen.” One other person wrote, “Gwen goes through it.” No person really knew Gwen. Nonetheless, they knew what her lipstick looked like – and so they were frightened. The small bullet of red looked like someone had scraped off the perimeters with a pointy object. The opposite lipsticks alongside Gwen’s weren’t in significantly better shape themselves. The highest of Wendy’s lipstick had an prolonged protrusion like a duckbill and Jean’s had slopes on each side.

These lipsticks made people uncomfortable, sparked their imaginations to wonder what form of people Gwen and Wendy and Jean could possibly be to have caused the lipsticks to reach on this state. Additionally they imagined who Linda and Ellen were, in the event that they used brushes to use lipsticks and in the event that they were like them. They agreed that it was possible that a few of these people were eating their lipsticks and that Ellen needed to be arrested immediately.

The lipsticks are all a part of a series by visual artist Stacy Greene, who photographed the various, unusual and at times alarming shapes of lipsticks belonging to friends and strangers alike. Though the images were taken between 1991 and 1993, they’ve stood the test of time and 30 years on are still delighting and surprising viewers. When popular culture Instagram account Violet Shell posted images from the series recently, it quickly went viral with over 52,000 likes and nearly 300 comments – including the above concern for Gwen and co, and other people turning the lipsticks into archetypes that they will discover with. “I’m a Linda form of girl,” as one commenter wrote.

“I’m surprised and getting used to it,” Greene laughs when reflecting on the Instagram post and this lasting popularity. “But I used to be at all times just a little surprised how popular it remained and I’m really comfortable for that. Sometimes I’m like ‘oh my god, I can’t appear to top this peak’, since it just goes into so many worlds – it’s not only the art world.”

Greene first had the inspiration for the series when she picked up a lipstick dropped by her friend outside the Whitney Biennale and opened it to search out something so fascinating that it seemed higher than all of the art on the exhibition. She realised other people must even have unusually shaped lipstick bullets and he or she and her friends began to look out for them wherever they went. “You may have to ask people ‘show me your lipstick’ – it seems form of intimate to even say that. After which they’ve to provide up their lipstick and I at all times say, ‘I’ll buy you a recent lipstick if I can have your old one.’”

For the reason that lipstick series, Greene has continued to weave beauty products into her work – photographing perfume bottles and the acute manicures that were popular in Latest York within the mid-90s. At a celebration, she once invited men and ladies to placed on lipstick which she would then film, and recently she has been working with synthetic eyelashes. Through Greene’s lens, these peculiar on a regular basis objects are seen in a special light. “I desired to make an abstract object that fools people for a number of minutes,” as she says in regards to the lipsticks.

You’ve called these lipsticks personal sculptures. What do you mean by that?

Stacy Greene: Well, one doesn’t even know they’re making a sculpture. Because they only consider it as a lipstick, a industrial product. So, they’re not considering by way of conceptual art or anything, but still, every lipstick could be very personal once it starts for use. And it’s not a product anymore. It’s your individual personal extension of your lips in a way. So, I do think that the thing that basically excited me was a subconscious sculpture within the making that was continually being reshaped.

You’ve explored the transformation from factory-made to the ultimate product after it’s been used lots in your work. What interested you about this?

Stacy Greene: [With the lipsticks] I feel it began more with the form, the individuality of the form, and that was stimulating by way of just an aesthetic thing. Then the conceptual element too. Those two things were very exciting to me, that’s why it needed to be a photograph project. You may make up anything while you’re painting, but for those who take a straight photograph and also you don’t alter it, that’s an actual document and that’s what I like. I like taking a look at the person and what they did to that lipstick, it is extremely human and really unique and nobody else can copy it. That’s why it needed to be a photograph. 

What’s your fascination with lipsticks and lips? 

Stacy Greene: Growing up, my mother would at all times apply her lipstick within the mirror with a brush. She was a single parent, my father had died very young, so she was starting thus far again. She would placed on the lipstick with just a little brush, and the one lipstick you may’ve seen – the Ellen one – that’s the one with a corkscrew, that’s applied with a brush. That’s why she keeps turning it around so she will use every aspect of the lipstick. That’s why it’s like a corkscrew as she’s using the comb. I might just stare up at her, watching her placed on her make-up. 

I used to wear red on a regular basis within the 80s in Latest York since it felt powerful. It felt such as you’re walking down the streets and it’s kinda like don’t mess with me. Take a look at me but don’t mess with me, with the red. And I liked that power statement. I don’t wear as much red anymore, but I do find it irresistible, and I feel it’s probably probably the most powerful color you possibly can wear in your lips.

Is Ellen your mother?

Stacy Greene: No, Ellen is just someone’s aunt whose lipstick I saw. My mother is Maradee.

Who were these people? We at all times make their personalities up, but what were their actual personalities like?

Stacy Greene: Well, let’s see. My mother was a perfectionist, which is why she used the comb. My sister Roberta is an animal lover and that one actually has lots of hair on it and dog hair, cat hair, so it shows she’s just a little messy, form of a tomboy – she doesn’t really wear lipstick actually. So, I feel that lipstick was more of a joke lipstick. Ellen, my friend’s aunt – very Latest York, very sophisticated – worked for a make-up company. I feel she worked for Guerlain, and he or she was very fastidious. She did the corkscrew, using the comb. India, the one which’s form of a lump of clay – she’s a slob. I don’t know if that was in her pocket for therefore long that it melted right into a blob, but she gave that to me. 

Gwen, who was my friend’s mother, was disabled – I feel it was muscular dystrophy – her lipstick ended up within the wash, in order that’s why that one looks the best way it’s, but I like the feel. I just thought it was one other way of fascinated with sculpture, just all of the textures on it. I’m not attempting to do a beauty product magazine shoot, [I’m focusing on] things that may occur and the person’s personality. 

One in all my favourites is Wendy – the one which I feel of as a duckbill. My friend found that she was waitressing at a restaurant in Latest York and he or she saw this woman putting on her lipstick after she had her meal. One other favourite was Jerelyn. She’s an artist, actually she works at Marvel. I at all times consider that because the chisel – I do have nicknames for each. Brenda, the purply shiny one, was married to a really wealthy man and he or she at all times needed to present herself good. She was a really interesting, very quirky woman, and just was at all times out in the general public eyes, so I feel her lipstick is just a little more pristine.

Today people have ascribed different meanings to the series but what did you wish to convey with it?

Stacy Greene: I wanted people to see the abstract element and the person as the person and to see what they will make subconsciously. It’s not a conscious thing normally, it’s an on a regular basis habit that one is doing – and likewise that was fun to witness. They were all printed large, 20” x 24”, and if I had extra money on the time I might have printed them huge. I might have taken them super out of scale, in order that they turn out to be like gigantic shapes that the majority people wouldn’t even know what they were – they only consider them as a shape. A variety of men – mostly men, not women a lot – after they see the photograph, at first they don’t know what it’s.

Do you continue to notice lipsticks today and if their shape is form of weird?

Stacy Greene: You realize, sometimes I notice. I’ve not seen shiny colors as much as I might think. I don’t exit, I mean, I’m not going to clubs that much or I would notice something if I’m going to an event, a gap perhaps. Possibly it’s just a little unlucky, but I feel everyone’s so casual in Latest York now, I mean unless you’re going to an event.

Did you notice more of those weird-shaped lipsticks within the ‘90s, within the clubs?

Stacy Greene: Well, you probably did because everybody went to the toilet. They were putting on their lipstick, perhaps doing a line or two of cocaine. So, you were taking a look at everybody, you were taking a look at the garments and everybody was crowded across the mirrors. Possibly that also happens, but I don’t really go to clubs that much anymore. I can’t remember the last club I went to. I’m sure there’s loads of stuff happening now, but it surely’s only a younger crowd than me. Not that I’m old.