[3][4] Cwynar uses a variety of media, including photography, collage, book-making and installation, to explore the nature of photographic images and the power and limitations of the medium itself.
[6] Cwynar's artwork explores the effects that consumerism (often being softly misogynistic) has on shaping subconscious ideals of beauty and self-image that have become ingrained in society, especially in women.
The exhibition had its ideological roots in Kitsch Encyclopedia and explored “a kind of ‘ritual extermination’ upon the hyperreal by confusing representation and reality.”[citation needed] Like Cwynar’s work in general, this show was a mix of photography, collage, rephotography, appropriation and studio set-ups.
In her book Glass Life, Cwynar expresses her desire to simultaneously use Soft Film as a means of portraying how the value of items is ever-changing due to the cyclical nature of capitalism and social movements.
[14] Its narration is composed of quotes from and references to authors such as Lauren Berlant, Toni Morrison, Judy Wacjman, and Ludwig Wittgenstein, all while adopting the nature of an educational film.
[14] Using the original rose gold iPhone that was released in 2015 as its primary focus, Cwynar's film examines themes of capitalism, feminism, power, and technology through the lens of color.
[13] Red Film (2018), the third installation in the informal trilogy, was originally included as part of the exhibition To Our Parents at the 33rd Bienal de São Paulo, curated by Alejandro Cesarco.
This book is an A-Z directory of examples of the concept of “kitsch,” as loosely defined by Milan Kundera as “the familiar images we look at in order to ignore all that is not aesthetically appealing about life.”[21] Also incorporating ideology from Jean Baudrillard and Roland Barthes, Cwynar’s take on this revolves around the idea that objects and events as portrayed in the media have become more “real” than those tangible items or historical events as they existed in the physical world.