Playing Dead, Casting Off

Casting Off, a sculpture, is a textile piece comprised of fabric with multiple neutral coloured prints of my body which have been deconstructed and reconstituted into an amorphous tubular shape with openings that leak out colourful bursts of Hazel’s clothes.

The process of mourning someone’s death often leaves us to contend with the logistical challenge of having to deal with the deceased’s belongings – the things that lived within the orbit of the loved one. Far from being neutral objects, they are emotionally charged often even carrying the scent of the departed – they are the agents of connectivity that we hold on to and try to make sense of amidst the turmoil of loss. Clothing in particular holds an emotionally charged position within this constellation of bodily effects. They are the outer coating, an extension of the body, evoking closeness to the skin, identity formation – the inner and the outer.