In the Flesh

Inspired by scientific anatomical displays through the slicing of, and encasing in glass, of the body. This piece, titled In The Flesh, embodies the prompt of “two places at once” through the “breaking down” of the actual process and construction of the piece as we explore construction and deconstruction.

Through our initial brain storming of the project, we stayed with the continuity of an apple, remaining naturalistic. The metaphor of an apple has been explored and redone throughout the centuries in which a “bad apple” can act as a warning of corruption among a group due to one person, an “apple of my eye” with the apple serving as a comparison to the pupil of the eye (the entrance to one’s soul), the “big apple” being a term regarding something as an object of desire and ambition, and the “forbidden fruit” as a metaphor that typically refers to any indulgence or pleasure that is considered illegal or immoral, much like the in the fable of Adam and Eve.

The use of materials, processes, composition, and preexisting metaphors, carry the idea of the apple. Each panel is done by an individual in the group, using deconstruction in the process as the pieces are done separately from one another, and exemplifying reconstruction as it all comes together for the final piece. The imagery of the cycle of life, as portrayed from the decomposition of an apple through the stages of its life, to the literal slicing as we dissect and examine the apples from an outside lens, marries the themes with the processes of flesh, the body, life, and science.

Group collaborators: Mackenzie Bukens, Sadie Hart, Julianne Mooney, Kiera Davidson, & Maria Victoria Verdu