Bodies as landscape: making strange
We chose to examine our bodies for those infamous “signs of ageing” that advertisers and the media focus upon: wrinkles on our hands and faces, widening waistlines and sagging bellies. Using a macro lens and video, we made these strange through extreme close-up, cropping, and active performances, for example using our bellies as drums. How mysteriously could we show our bodies so that the viewer would be uncertain as to what they were looking at? Whilst initially we did want these images to be strange, even repellent and shocking, the more important aspect was to show just how ordinary, commonplace and ubiquitous real lived-in flesh is.
©2020 Rosy Martin & Verity Welstead