Rose Burge
Eight Arms to Hold You
Abjection has become a focal point in my research to help me understand how feelings of both fear and pleasure can occur simultaneously. I have constructed a web of connections surrounding the theories of abjection, spectatorship, the 'signified' and 'signifier', all of which I have investigated and experimented with throughout this project.
The idea of spectatorship is open for creative investigation, the purpose of which is to experiment with viewer participation. Providing the viewer with only fragments of information evokes them to respond based on representation about real-life events. This forces the viewer to create their own narrative to make up for the missing pieces required to develop an internal fiction, which will differ from person to person.
I am most attracted to experimenting with the visible, the invisible and the interconnectedness of the body. My work's characteristics are comprised of mannequin body parts that are seamlessly joined at the wrist/shoulders to create an object that evokes both fear and pleasure.
The senses of fear and pleasure are aroused as body fragments morph into one another, creating a loss of certainty for the viewer. Between the smooth surface of the arms/legs and the intermingling of forms that have evolved, there is a proposed connection in the body, while simultaneously dissolving the visible division of the separate body parts.
The work plays with the distinctions of self and other. I create a disillusion of the individual through the connection of these mannequin pieces, indicative of the loss of self.
