Cafard

Cafard
Collage: Digital archival vellum print, hand-embroidery on paper, amate paper, hand-pressed watercolor paper
2013
This piece is a transitional piece, and represents a jump from purely photography, to mixed media in my works.
The work explores fear, repulsion, and phobic sensations of six varieties of this one species of insect. That is, it was meant to be a six piece series, but the phobic sensations were in fact enhanced by the production of this piece, and so it remained as a single, emblematic piece.
The main element in this piece is perceptual manipulation, which is shown by presenting the insect in an unknown form (wings spread), which allows for a certain kind of beauty to be found- despite phobic reactions.
The work was made as a collage to show the layers of understanding that one image presented in a perhaps unknown way, can manipulate one’s perception, and in doing so, completely alter meaning. In this sense, it is a psychological experiment of sorts, to guage initial reaction (with limited knowledge) and final reaction (with the knowledge that it is not a butterfly or a moth, but a cockroach).