Body Architecture - Lucy & Bart
Lucyandbart is a collaboration between artists Lucy McRae and Bart Hess. The ad hoc duo work close to the body within their shared practice, and their mode of operation is impulsive; generating ambiguous images depicting our skin as an interface between our self and the world. The pair describe their work as an 'instinctual stalking of fashion, architecture, performance and the body.'
Lucyandbart (re)imagine physically transformed bodies and faces with sometimes shocking artistic realism. Within this series they work instinctively, using various materials on the body, exploring volumes and remodelling the human silhouette very quickly to expulse all creative energy.
Both fascinating and off-putting, the images in a sense disturb, as they refuse us the intel of the subject's emotional state. The modified humans look us in the eye, not horrified, surprised or excited by their transformation: they are simply present and allow us to see them. There is something primitive and curious to be seen in the “deformed” human body. The dichotomy of 'the every day' that is present in materials used and un-fussy photography, and a type of super-future-human makes this series so brilliant. It also questions our ideals of beauty and the way we on look, the way we judge. Through Body Architecture, Lucy and Bart discover a low-tech, prosthetic way to alter the human body and pose question as to where body ends and ~space~ begins.
All imagery courtesy of Lucy McRae and Bart Hess.
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