Work in Progress:

The human skin is a rich and highly symbolic boundary in the collective imagination. It is constantly subject to cultural notions, making it appear in shifting light. For the project “paper thin” I intend to probe the surfaces of the photograph and the skin to explore notions of corporeality and self at this cultural moment. Research in literature, medicine and popular culture into the significance of human skin will be carefully documented in the formation of a resource for the creation of new work. I intend to photograph close-up details of the human body of thirteen selected individuals varying in cultural background, skin color and age to explore the uniqueness and beauty inherent in each of the bodily details. I intend to explore the themes of youth, beauty, ageing, skin color, mortality and time. I will explore familial relations by photographing my mother and grandmother, thereby examining the processes of ageing from a personal perspective. The photographic surfaces will be over-worked to impose a topographical pattern through the back of the print and to explore creases and marks left by time, age and feeling in the skin. The print surface will be re-worked, to pre-empt how time may imprint itself on the surface of the skin, to give the photograph a Dorian Gray-like ‘life’ of its own. The re-worked photographs will be re-photographed to return the prints to a seamless state. The surfaces of the skin and the photograph are central to the work.

This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.