Distress Prints

DISTRESS: A series which attempts to visualise the experience of pain. These prints have been left outside, buried, covered with growths of rust and salt crystals, coated in effervescent painkillers and some even eaten by snails. Using different experimental techniques I attack the image surface, specifically targeting the parts of the body and mind causing discomfort. The methods used to damage the image are instinctive ways of self soothing such as stroking/rubbing, cleaning, gardening, and walking in the rain. I deliberately use a small edit of source images of my body and face over-and-over again - each time rendering a different result. This repeated action lets new layers emerge allowing for contrast and comparison. The complex, fluctuating, individual nature of pain. The ritual of reworking, photographing and printing again and again becomes a cathartic release; exorcising the pain from me and in to the work I create. (These artworks are part of a larger project - to view more please visit my website. Made with support from Arts Council Englands Developing Your Creative Practice grant) 'Distress' My body drinks in the harsh cold of winter Setting my bones on fire My hands ball up into blotched white fists Suddenly and viciously A message travels down my Over over sensitive nerves Sending my fingers shooting out Dead straight Rigor morticed in pain Liquid churns hot in my spasming bowels Limp sprinting to the bathroom I watch through my open legs As blood drips into the toilet bowl A crimson red rose blooms Then slowly dissolves I am a clockwork toy Wound too tight The obsessions I neatly tidied away Are coming out of their boxes Quicker than a child’s presents at Christmas