Maximilian Wiles
Mortality
The frailty of human existence is something that at some point in our lives affects us all. The photographs in this body of work are, in some form, of the body. From representations of it in classical forms, damaged almost beyond recognition, traditional portraiture and to that archetypal form memento mori, the human skull.
The images I take are intended to be somewhat uncomfortable, dealing as they do with a subject that most of us are, at best, uncomfortable with discussing. The project began as a means to think about the death of one of my relatives from liposarcoma and my inability to represent it or even explain it to others. It moved from one death to what it means to live and to create work.
Photographing and using the human body as a canvas; drawing first on myself and then on models. An attempt to represent those parts of us that are so vital but also hidden from daily view and to make familiar forms something to consider once again.
Working with archival anatomical drawings I drew first on skin, then later on the surface of prints of those photographs themselves to form a cycle of repetition that makes each individual print a unique one-of-one object.
Contact Maximilian Wiles
- Phone
- +44 7891 028 519
- hello@maximilianwiles.com
- Website
- http://www.maximilianwiles.com
- @maximilianwiles