Skinned
Skinned is a series of seven large black and white mural photographs of abstracted close-up images of human and non-human surfaces. The abstraction resulting from the greatly enlarged grain of the 35mm negative produces images that are visually confounding. At this scale an image of a closed eye floats on a flat distorted field of flesh which is articulated by the rope thick hairs of the eyebrow and eye lashes and a close-up image of the lines on the palm of a hand are full of unknown predictions about the identity and fate of an individual history.
Several of the images that are included in Skinned are used in constructed panels from my ongoing epic project Tit for Twat. The photographs of skin function both in and out of the context of their purpose structurally in the theoretical narrative of Tit for Twat. The Skinned portfolio both expands the latent ideas about abstraction in Tit for Twat and emphasizes the visceral sensuous overwhelming flesh of the body which is an important theme in the narrative's discourse. The seven large murals relate to the issues of race, culture, identity, and origin that are articulated in Tit for Twat but also exist in an autonomous adjacent space to that project.
Tit for Twat provides the context for reading the surface of these skins. Skinned provides a hyper-figurative non-representational space for contemplation and non-linear thinking. While Tit for Twat considers the figure ground relationship the extension of the visual concerns in both Skinned and Burned… allow the discrete consideration of the figure and the ground. These installation views are from an exhibition at “The Other Gallery”, at The Banff Centre for the Arts, Banff, Alberta, Canada in June 2000. The photographs were projection printed from 35 mm negatives on archival fiber paper and were hand processed.