Consumed: A self-portrait I & II
Photography on Fabriano
Edition 1 of 1
2 Part: (2) 102 cm x 75 cm
ARTIST’S STATEMENT
This project is a continuation of my investigation into using pillows as a surrogate for the body and thematically exploring the effect of trauma on the body and psyche. This intimate object is familiar, known, close to the body, comforting, and even scented with the body’s scent. These used pillows are cut, picked, exposed, and mutilated, alluding to similar experiences of trauma occurring in and on the body.
In this diptych, I investigated the absence and presence of a body within objects. The longer one views this diptych, the more these melancholic objects start becoming akin to distorted faces. With the folds and lines of the pillow becoming the creases of an eye. Or the stuffing peeling out in such a way that it starts reforming the curves of a nose. The body is present mainly indirectly, in the form of objects that in one way or another are adjusted to bear the body’s traces. Though one generally understands that you are not truly viewing a body, a body still forms. The destructive nature of these photographs was done in order to create a visceral reaction within the viewers. As I mirror my own traumatic wounds within these photographs. Actual used dentures and pomegranates have been used to suggest the endocannibalism that is caused by traumatic events and how the after-effects of these events have consumed me. Placing the teeth next to the pomegranate has a dual suggestion. The first being the devouring of the pomegranate, though secondly, the dried pomegranate rind is also elusive to gums and teeth. Further humanising the object and alluding to the presence of a body.
GALLERY
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