Under the skin
My latest work is about understanding the relationship between the human form and the suffering that occurs within a human. Our bodies are the form that carries us in the space. Our skin is the thin boundary between what’s within us and reality. Made with a steel skeleton and dressed with a spandex suit, it pierces the human form into reality. This work has a direct relationship to mental health issues, IBS, Cohn’s disease and other illness that cannot be seen. Having someone close to my heart suffer with one of these illnesses every day is heart breaking, not only for her but for me because I am not able to do anything for her. This is where the inspiration for this work came from; to make people understand how these people feel every day battling their illnesses.
I later suspended this form in the air to understand what effect it would have being at head level. The interaction with the piece in terms of being able to walk within and around really changes the dynamic of the work. The piece really harmonises with the space, not intrusive, just gentle, and that’s what I’m trying to create. The work expresses the ideas of the mind, the way in which ideas are encased in semi-hardened plastic balls, suspended in a reality, our reality, much different to how they are inside the brain but if ideas were real objects that can be seen, held and touched. This is what they would look like. Time, represented as red wool connects the balls to the form.
