Muta Poesis/Silent Death (2003)

Muta Poesis (Silent Death) was completed and exhibited as the penultimate work for my MFA in 2003. The overall context for this body of work lies in my investigation of death and photography: the work considers both in relation to the historical and artistic practices of photographing the dead and the discourses interpreting photography as a form of death. Central to this body of work is my exploration of the absent/present nature of death, and my visualisation of this within the photographic frame. The morgue is an ideal space within which to photograph as there exists no doubt about the dead being, and having been, physically present.

I photograph the absence/presence of death in a very specific manner. Using a 35mm film camera I enter the space and begin to photograph; I do not look through the viewfinder of the camera, and do not compose my photographs. Instead I hold the camera in my hand, my finger on the shutter release, and move it about, taking photographs as I do. As I photograph, I observe the space directly and independently of the camera, examining its every detail, the autopsy table, the implements used to dissect the cadaver, the clothing worn by those who perform/assist in the investigation of death. This process offers two distinct overviews of the mortuary space—that of the camera, and my own observations. When I print the negatives, I begin to see traces, the remnants of the unobserved actions of the individuals as they work within and traverse the morgue. Through my photographic process, the formally invisible traces present within the space become visible, with the result that the absent/present nature of death becomes clear. The positioning of the photographs and book stand is to ensure that a physical distance exists between the viewer and the photographs: the distance is achieved through the box-framing and positioning of the viewer in relation to the photographs when the viewer is reading the accompanying book of quotations. Positioning viewers in this manner, when their reflection is visible in the glass of the framed work, means that when they notice this it can prompt a consideration of their own mortality and the continual tension between life and death.