IB VISUAL ARTS 2024
Charlotte T
My exhibition presents ideas about the relationship between different physical forms and religion. I explored this in several ways, primarily through a comparative lens examining the human body, animalistic body, and spiritual body. These concepts are interlinked through our own perceptions of corporeal worth and, consequently, the associated preconceptions dictated by society - specifically those with roots in both Catholic and broader Christian beliefs. I was inspired to explore this overarching concept due to the contrast of my personal atheistic beliefs and the Christian education system I have been raised under. In a way, my concepts have been shaped by the persistent feeling of being an outsider attempting to understand imposed religious and cultural values. Furthermore, I have harboured a deep interest in the macabre, and I feel this is a topic that is eloquently captured in religion through the tension presented between divinity and damnation. My works incorporate many aspects of traditional Baroque and Gothic eras, as a way to subvert and re-imagine traditional Christian symbolism and messaging. By approaching my artmaking in this manner, I was able to create a cohesive body of work which comprehensively investigates these ideas.
One of the major artistic influences of my paintings is the artist Nicola Samori. His exploration of corruption and bodily decay, stylized through a Baroque lens, often incorporates destruction of the
canvas. My piece “Piety” has the strongest visual connections to Samori’s work, using a similar degradation of copper to that seen in his work “The Golden Child”. I was inspired to implement a similar style to Baroque artists such as Caravaggio and Zurbaran in my art making as they frequently explored themes of religion, humanity, and mortality, concepts central to my exhibition. They have been a consistent influence in my painting techniques, and large reason I developed a love for the artform, and thus I elected to pay homage to them in my work.
One of the main aims of my exhibition was to present works which were repulsive and discomforting yet also alluring, drawing the viewer in whilst simultaneously pushing them away. When curating my exhibition, I wanted to keep the viewer’s perception in mind: for this reason, I chose to use a minimalistic colour palate, which helped to present my works cohesively. I employed an absence of colour in many pieces to draw attention to the centrally displayed paintings. By creating an exhibition which can be consumed as harmonious body, it at first glance serves to assuage some of the more
grotesque aspects of my individual works. As a result of exploring my concepts in this way, viewers are encouraged to examine each artwork individually whilst simultaneously considering the context of the exhibition as a whole, showcasing how all the ideas I communicated are intrinsically interwoven. When displaying my exhibition, I wanted to emulate the feeling of walking into a sacred space, such as a church or a chapel. This is achieved through the presentation of the triptych, which centres the exhibition visually and conceptually. Furthermore, the triptych acts as a restrained yet dominant centrepiece, concordant with its symmetrical composition and moderated complementary colour scheme. The presentation of the three paintings is akin to an altar, grounding my exhibition in its encapsulation of the allegorical progression of my works, whilst also setting the aesthetic qualities which permeate the exhibition. I have focussed heavily on symmetry in my exhibition as balancing my artworks creates an overall sense of harmony, reflecting the visual balance of organised religious alters, sacraments, and consecrated beings. Alongside capturing the feel of traditional allegorical works, I have also imbued my exhibition with rich biblical imagery, particularly in incorporating symbols which represent ideas of consumption and impurity. I focalised my exploration of consumption through the lenses of greed and of decay/desecration. Greed as an embodiment of physical consumption and hunger are seen most prominently in the pieces “Sacrifice” and “Vanitas”, as they both contain allusions to feasts.
Desecration and decay are visible in “Piety” and in “Putrefaction”, both with disfigurement of the subject and of the canvas. Tension between perceived purity and impurity is a theme which runs throughout the entire exhibition, and presents itself both overtly and implicitly in my works.
3. Piety
10. Cavalcade
1. Putrefaction
2. Necrosis
4. Sacrifice
6. Unbinding
5. Offering
5. Offering (detail)
7. Transience
8. Vanitas
9. Capra Falconeri
Install view
ARTWORK STAtements
1. Putrefaction
Oil on Canvas
50.5cm x 40cm
Named after a stage of bodily decomposition, the painting explores the purpose of the body after death. With this piece I delve deeper into the decay of human flesh, creating something that is visually unsettling, yet a stark reminder of the terminal nature of our bodies. The corporeal desecration by youthful hands reminds us that the body is not sacred, preserved in glory, but a part of nature, and like all flesh, will rot and decay, making the bodily defilement ironically cyclical.
2. Necrosis
Cyanotype on Paper, Series of Two
Each 41cm x 29.5cm
This diptych explores the centrality of the body in the present, a finite moment of time. The roots extending from the figure’s nape appear necrotic, poisoning the subject’s flesh. These photos explore a liminal stage of the human experience, between sickness and death through the corruption of human flesh. By printing these photos with an ephemeral, natural process I explored the body’s temporality and lifespan, alongside the inevitability of its decomposition, linking humanity and nature.
3. Piety
Oil on Copper with Acid Corrosion
45cm x 30cm
An overt subversion of traditional purity culture, this painting reflects the idea’s futility and harmful consequences. The visual juxtapositions highlight the ideology’s and nature’s fundamental incompatibility. Contrasting the pristine figure and decrepit, corroding copper suggests the impermanence of physical forms. The suffering wrought from succumbing to the belief of the body’s profanity is ultimately meaningless, as, like all organic forms, covering it does not stop its degradation.
4. Sacrifice
Oil on Canvas
61cm x 61 cm
Beginning the triptych, this painting explores the intersection of birth and death. The lamb is sacrificially offered to the viewer as a physical body to be ruined, occurring seemingly moments after birth as the amniotic sac remains in a pure state. This highlights the fleeting, impermanent nature of the body: no sooner than it is created, it is destroyed. I have transformed the lamb, symbolic of purity and innocence, into a reminder of the finite, limiting nature of the physical world and body.
5. Offering
Oil on Canvas
141.5cm x 20cm
This painting explores the death and decay associated with the physical body. The locusts represent plague, traveling in swarms. Their presence is considered a scourge, much as impurity of the human body can be considered an affliction. The presentation as a cathedral alter recognises the desire for a cleanliness, purity, and higher order unobtainable in the physical form. This piece serves to link the triptych, representing the liminal stage of life occurring shortly before the body’s death.
6. Unbinding
Oil on Canvas
61cm x 61 cm
The third work in the triptych, this painting mirrors “Sacrifice”, creating a sense of morbid duality by accepting the physical limitations of the body. By contrasting the grotesque and alien nature of the human body, exhibiting the flesh as repulsive, and juxtaposing the soul’s purity and veracity, I have represented the soul’s importance in forming personal identity, a body merely its vessel. This piece acts as a conclusion to the triptych, recognising restrictions imposed by a physical body.
7. Transience
Charcoal on Paper
70cm x 49.5cm
With this drawing I portray the body as it is in a life, in constant change and transformation. I chose charcoal to depict the ephemeral nature of body as it is an ever changing medium, impermanent and unfixed. Charcoal is a product of transformation, much as the body and its capabilities metamorphose over time and with age. The softness and blurred edges of the body are intended to convey both the figure’s youth, and the body’s malleability and susceptibility to change, by choice or by force.
8. Vanitas
Intaglio Print on Paper
27cm x 23 cm
A play on the ‘Vanitas’ genre, this intaglio explores the transience of life, focalised through cannibalism. The feasting imagery of bread and wine connotes the ritualism of transubstantiation
and The Last Supper. Juxtaposing the strong condemnation of cannibalism, it critiques the double standards of consumption and spirituality. The greatest sin in worship, normalised as a path to salvation and affirmation of Christ, being achieved through bodily desecration encapsulates human greed.
9. Capra Falconeri
Intaglio Print on Paper
20cm x 12 cm
This intaglio critiques the negative stereotypes surrounding the goat. Similar to sheep they are demonized, regarded with negative connotations, symbolic of sin. The shape of a taxidermy bust,
a trophy, represents the death of the body which many believe to be impure and evil. Unlike other artworks showing the destruction of the physical body, this piece represents the objectification of
the animal’s physical form, reducing it to a prize to subvert traditional perceptions and elicit pity.
10. Cavalcade
Charcoal on Paper
49.5cm x 70cm
As a synthesis of motifs from my exhibition, this drawing concludes the exhibition with grotesque, humanoid forms, alongside cloaked figures, symbolic of purity and wholeness, with
various animals, each differing in connotations. The composition of a procession, an important aspect of worship and devotion, alludes to conformity under the presence of a higher force. The
blankness of the figures strips them of their vitality, emphasising the overwhelming insignificance of the mortal being.