Last week of the Sum Body Speak exhibit at Body & Pole. Go view them while you still can and email, [email protected], to purchase.
This series is a collaboration between Kyle McBeth of Sum Seen, the clothing company bodybinds and the dance company Pole Speak. The project coincided with Pole Speak's debut performance. Inspired by Hans Bellmer, a surrealist from the 1930's, and his project "The Doll". Photographs of a custom built mannequin placed in various poses, "The Doll" is rooted in the sublimation of desire and how that can affect the senses. In Bellmer's theory this sublimation could make a hand act as an eye, an arm a leg and the base of the neck the pelvis. This idea of seeing the form as parts and ones that could be interchangeable sparked the initial concept for "Sum Body Speak". The choice to use bodybinds as a main part of the wardrobe was a natural progression. The bodybinds create a conflict by both dissecting and containing the body in a way that can be clean and at the same time a distortion. In order to capture the images needed to create this series, the members of Pole Speak were asked to pose in in a variety of positions shot from different angles. These images were then manipulated and composited in post production, so that in any one final photo there may be elements from up to eight individuals. "Sum Body Speak" takes this idea of the sublimation of the senses and transfers it to the sublimation of the individual in a group. The photo retouching techniques that are currently so prevalent were used in an intentionally obvious way to create a tension by viewing something familiar yet unsettling.