Broken

The Broken series consists of 16 objects representative of torture methods identified by Amnesty International in a list of 27 methods recorded in the years 2013/14. My selection from this list focused on methods that can be applied solely through the use of everyday objects and places. Each object is presented against a clean, white backdrop in an isolated form without any context, a symbol without signifier. The images are timestamped with numbers indicating how long a single application of the method approximately lasts. The presentation of this series challenges the viewer to look at these objects first with his or her own associations. A short text plate, a little off the side of the photographs, provides the context of torture and forces the viewer to take a second look at the objects, which will now materialize in his or her imagination as methods of torture and instruments of pain. The series challenges the way we look at everyday objects, examines the creative energy of men and the simple methods through which we torture one another. It also investigates how perception of an object is dependent upon context, as signifiers create the signified.