Page History

Angie Eldred

‘Humanism’

Name: William Foster

Title of work: 1. Fridge in which bodies are stored 2. Preparing for funeral #1 3. Cupboard of mortuary room 4. Preparing for funeral #2 5. Mortuary room 6. Loading coffin into hearse

Medium: Inkjet Print

Over the past few years I have become fascinated with the topic of death and the industry that surrounds it, after researching about the practices surrounding death in other countries and reading a non-fiction book about the life of a mortuary technician within the U.K, I decided that I really disliked how the western world perceives death and the funeral industry so negatively. The people who work in the funeral industry are seen as ‘creepy’ or ‘strange’ when in fact they are everyday hard-working people who put a lot of emotion and care into their work. For my works I visited Gabrielle Walsh Funeral Services and photographed the space and the staff at work. The aim of my final works was to destigmatise the funeral industry and display that those who work in the industry are normal everyday people who work hard to help those during often, very emotional times. People see death as confronting, but if western countries discussed the topic more and made it less taboo, death would be perceived how it should be, just a part of life.

Inkjet digital print

At the start of the year the aim of my folio was to create a body of work that represented what we can’t see when looking at the human body. I was clear I wanted my image to be portraiture with a single central focus and dark studio background, that emulated the aethereal, luminosity of Bill Henson’s depiction of skin and the anthropomorphic lines of the body, juxtaposed with the jagged edges and pop of brightness that the bone possesses.

At the beginning of the year I had a strict idea of what I wanted to do, and that was a similar idea but instead of collage I wanted to use projection. However, after my potential directions and having to adapt my work to be able to construct it at home I soon realized that collage both looked better and was easier to create in isolation. I focused more on collage in my folio, it reflected a more natural looking juxtaposition of bone and skin specifically with the smooth paper I printed on.