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- Keith Blake
Keith
Blake
CORPUS
My work stems from imagery that I gathered of what are colloquially referred to as body farms. A body farm is a facility where human decomposition is studied by forensic anthropologists. The information they procure is used as an aid in the solving of crimes. On a body farm one would find acres of wilderness scattered with donated corpses in varying stages of putrefaction. They are a recent phenomenon with the earliest facility having opened in 1981 in Knoxville, Texas.
My work probes the ethical issues that arise from the objectification of the corpse. It questions the entitlement of the living to use the corpse as an instrument. It is an examination of our reaction to the corporeality of death. Why is the disclosing of the process of decay after death met with disgust and horror? It sees the corpse as existing in a liminal space. This is a place of transition that disorients and perplexes; it disrupts our preconceived (and what we feel are incontrovertible) ideas. This is offset with the aim of creating work that is alluring and harmonious.
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