Memento Vitae
Memento Vitae is a collection of detailed, high contrast, infrared photographs of my body made after losing 125 lbs in twelve months from diet and exercise. I photograph myself in infrared because it penetrates deeper into skin than visible light, affording me the ability to, literally and conceptually, peer beyond my surface-level aesthetics. Accompanying the photographs are sculptures made with a black, glossy substance called pitch. At room temperature, this material is, although looking and feeling like a stable object, a slow moving liquid that, for me, becomes analogous to the phenomenological aspects of my weight loss as well as a material representation of surplus fat.
My Hand and Flesh (Selected Grid View), 2022
Inkjet on Paper
38” x 72”
Already immunocompromised and in the midst of a global endemic, I became convinced my health was in jeopardy because of my obesity. What I had not fully realized was excess skin will always accompany extreme weight loss. Paradoxically, this meant the healthier I became the more my physique began to visually resemble someone much older and frailer. The more weight I lost, the more I was reminded that someday I will succumb to the forces of entropy, morphing my body into my own, personal, living memento mori.
My Skin (Image Set), 2022
Inkjet on Paper
Variable Dimensions
My Faces, 2022
Inkjet on Polyester Film
16” x 20”
My Gut, 2022
2XL Undershirt, Gugolz Pitch
20” x 16” x 10”
My Rib Cage, 2022
Steel Galley Tray, Gugolz Pitch, Rust, Detritus
12” x 18” x 1”
My Weight, 2022
What I Have Lost, 2022
Concrete, Steel Core
15” x 15” x 15”
10 lbs of My Excess, 2022
Gugolz Pitch
15” x 12” x 8”