Ilana Harris-Babou

Ilana Harris-Babou (born 1991, Brooklyn, New York) is an interdisciplinary artist whose work critically examines consumer culture, race, beauty standards, and systems of wellness and self-improvement in contemporary society. Working across video, sculpture, installation, and performance, Harris-Babou often adopts the visual language of advertising, lifestyle branding, and online tutorial culture to reveal the ideological frameworks embedded within everyday products and media. Through humor, satire, and carefully staged performances, Harris-Babou interrogates how consumer industries—from cosmetics and fitness to home goods and self-care—construct narratives around identity, success, and bodily perfection. Her work frequently mimics the polished aesthetics of marketing campaigns and instructional videos, only to disrupt them through absurdity, exaggeration, or critical commentary. This strategy exposes the racialized and gendered assumptions underlying capitalist systems of aspiration and consumption. Harris-Babou’s practice also engages the politics of domestic space and the emotional labor tied to self-improvement culture. By placing herself or performers within staged environments that echo infomercials or lifestyle media, she reveals how ideals of productivity, wellness, and transformation are marketed as accessible solutions to structural inequalities. Her work ultimately questions who these promises serve and who remains excluded. Her work has been widely exhibited at museums, galleries, and international exhibitions, and she has been recognized for her incisive approach to media critique and cultural satire. Harris-Babou lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.