Bodies

Personally, I experience an intense and consistent sense of anxiety towards death, and specifically the loss of a loved one due to a road accident. This has led me to wonder how an individual copes with this sort of substantial loss. During my practical research it has become apparent that there are many contrasts existing in the mourning process, contrasts related to the relationship between anxiety and peace.

Contrasts

• Peace vs anxiety
• Open vs closed graves
• Living vs dead
• Power vs powerless
• Light vs dark
• Heaven vs earth
• Whole vs fragmented

However, these stark contrasts also allude to ‘grey areas’ between them. For example, some believe that there is life after death, and in this way there is another level of existence. Different contrasts could also hold different meanings for different personality types, leading to other ‘grey areas’.

In the artwork, the physical space between the two light boxes can be used by a viewer as a space of contemplation, where contrasts or concepts related to mourning and loss that are relevant to the viewer can be processed. In this way a viewer is immersed, and functions as a third type of body within the work. The first type, suggested by the heaped earth, is a buried body, closed, dead, powerless and dark. The second type, represented by the fragmented apparitions in the light boxes, could be a body in the ‘grey area’ between life and death. The third and final figure is then the viewer: open, alive, lit, whole and powerful.