The goddess of death and rebirth

“This work ‘The goddess of death and rebirth’ is from a series called ‘still movement’ from 2013, which I created as part of my first exhibition after graduating art school in 2013.

I wanted to create a work that meant something to me, and about something that I had been dealing with at the time, which was my first diagnosis of ADHD and introduction to prescription pharmaceutical drugs. The whole experience was really intense and I was feeling so lost and confused about what that diagnosis meant and what I decided to put into my body as a result.

I had a vision come to me about how i could portray this experience through my artistic expression of photography, and this was what the vision said;
“You will need a black studio, a strobe light, yourself and a camera + tripod”

Ok.....I answered the call....i said yes.

So, I hired a studio, I hired a strobe light from a party shop in Surry Hills and I packed my camera and tripod in my bag and off we went to create the work.

Since I was the only one in the room, I realised this meant I was the model/muse, so I stripped off my clothes and set the self timer. This work was about me after all. I was stripped back and vulnerable and just let the work come to life. It was a truly magical dance.

I sat in various spots in the room where the camera could see me and as the shutter of the camera opened, I moved my body whichever way it felt like moving, and as the strobe flashed on and off, the moments where I moved, the camera would capture only what the light hit.

This is how you get that effect...it's all in camera, not layers of images on top of the other using post production programs.

It was capturing every moment it could in those 20 seconds of exposure. It was magic. In those moments... I just thought of all the times we are told to sit still when all we want to do is get up and dance. So I danced, and this series was the result.

This particular Photograph in the series ‘The goddess of death and rebirth’ was particularly special because the resulting image looked like the goddess Kali (Hindu goddess) which a dear friend pointed out to me and is now the owner of the first edition of this printed series.”

Dimensions: 1290 x 960
Materials: Framed Photograph

ARTIST BIO