In the nuddy

This current work is an ongoing exploration into the vulnerability and frailty of being human and how it could be expressed in different forms and approaches. The individual pieces are fragmented, distorted, injured, ugly, strange, and perhaps even frightening. This presentation of work attempts to investigate the capacity of a body while seeking to dismantle socially constructed notions of a 'healthy', 'able' and the 'perfect' body.

What lies beneath the surface of our civilised skins, metaphorically and physically, the under layers exposed and what it means to be human. Bread-dough and wax are the prime base matter ingredients within the work. Both materials bear a precarious nature, prone to breakdown or melt and can be transformed into different states that coincide with humanity's ever-changing aspects and anatomy.

Within Western society, there has been a prevailing tendency to manage and control the body to perform within a 'civilised' human identity construct. A body that is oozing, squeezing and pumping of life fated to hollow departure in death, is often shunned and loathed. The flawless, polished, 'uncontaminated' bodies are sought after and celebrated as we struggle to accept the corporeality of the body in its limits and morality.

Perhaps along the way, as humans, we have forgotten how damaged, vulnerable and finite we are, with our outer skins thickly concealing the inner territory, bit by bit, until death is recognised as a friend.