Jenny Saville
The photographic series Closed Contact, 1995-96. This collaboration between painter Jenny Saville and fashion photographer/filmmaker Glen Luchford confronts and challenges conceived notions of feminine beauty. The collusion of the art and fashion worlds has produced many hybrids in recent years, yet none perhaps as intensely striking as this series. In this body of work, the artists have created a new form of self-portraiture, using Saville as the model.
After having observed the operations of reconstructive and aesthetic surgery, Saville was eager to express the violence and anesthetized pain of this experience in her own work. Luchford and Saville began an artistic collaboration that captures the full range of color, tonality and topography of live flesh, in large photographic tableaux. Distortions confront and coerce the viewer into an examination of one's own body and the grotesqueries and beauties inherent within. The images also recall biological specimens preserved, disembodied and disfigured.
After having observed the operations of reconstructive and aesthetic surgery, Saville was eager to express the violence and anesthetized pain of this experience in her own work. Luchford and Saville began an artistic collaboration that captures the full range of color, tonality and topography of live flesh, in large photographic tableaux. Distortions confront and coerce the viewer into an examination of one's own body and the grotesqueries and beauties inherent within. The images also recall biological specimens preserved, disembodied and disfigured.
