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FORM + FUNCTION
Dissecting our often complex relationship with our own bodies, Chloe Rosser’s projects Form and Function combine to offer an arresting, provocative portrayal of the time spent in our own skin
photography – chloe rosser
location – london, united kingdom
London based photographer Chloe Rosser’s subject area is the human body in space. At once intriguing, visually arresting and occasionally disturbing, her work pulls apart our experience of being in our own skin.
As the photographer explains, “my projects, Form and Function, explore the human condition and our fraught relationship with the human body. In these photographs, what should be intimately familiar is transformed into an unfamiliar sculpture.”
“Photographed in this contorted fashion, the body becomes almost inhuman. It is a mindless mass of flesh, a growth. Without identifying features, we cannot make the usual assumptions or judgements that we would about a portrait. We are instead forced to focus on aspects of the human form that are normally overlooked.”
“While Form follows the individual figure’s experience in the space, Function explores the relationships between the bodies, studying their intimate interactions as they support and rely on each other in their poses. Positioned like sculptures, they are placed in empty rooms. Subtly familiar markers suggest these spaces to be homes. They are distinctly lived in but intentionally stripped bare.”
“Evidence of humanity appears in a red mark on the skin from a recent scratch, or the subtle imprint from a piece of clothing. Here, people of different body shapes, skin tones, sexualities, ages and genders are treated equally, becoming anonymous structures that critique body image social norms. In an age when we are saturated with digitally altered and enhanced imagery, these real, fleshy sculptures challenge how we look at the human body.” – Chloe Rosser
“Your very flesh shall be a great poem...” – Walt Whitman
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