Early
on this morning, while the sun was still on the western side of Annie's
house, Victoria and I went outside, along with a skull from Annie's wall,
and a black infra-red proof cloth borrowed from one of the other
artists. Ever since my arrival in Annie's house, I'd been eyeing the
arrangement of skulls on the living room walls, drawn to the wonderful
simplicity of their lines and form. Victoria shared my enthusiasm for
the shape and form, and was more than keen to help me explore the
possibilities.
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| 35mm infrared film |
Working
in the diffused light on the shady side of the house, I exposed a whole
roll of 35mm infra-red film, working with the skull in various
positions on Victoria's body. The black cloth isolated the two elements
in the image-frame, while the soft light lent a wonderful roundness to
the forms which would have disappeared with a more direct light source.
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| 35mm infrared film |
Combining
the Nude with the skull was far easier than I had expected, with the
flow of the horns and bone easily mirroring the lines of the body. The
meaning of such images is fascinating too, pulling me back to my earlier
ideas of the Nude, mortality and photography. The wonderful thing about
juxtaposing the body and the skull is that they are intimately related,
in a non-linear manner. The skull serves as a memory of the
impermanence of the flesh, and yet the two co-exist in the image in a
most fluid way.
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| 35mm infrared film |
These
images I think will lead to more; later in Alberta, and perhaps back in
Nova Scotia. Annie, Victoria and I had lengthy conversations about the
cleaning of bones and skulls (burying them underground near ant hills is
one method), and her recommendation to buy cleaned skulls from an
abattoir is still in the back of my mind.
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