Thanatos to

Eros

Revisiting dark places opens new doors to physical and spiritual dwellings. In this work, Charlie tackles the issues of external dependency, discomfort and transition.

In a small studio. Charlie covered herself in black body paint with screws attached to the bottom of her feet. For 1 hour 27 minutes, she moves in extreme slowness between spaces of darkness and light, wearing a black bag obscuring her vision. These materials symbolise internal suffering when transitioning through states of destructiveness and instinctual gratification. As the movement progresses she responds to the pain of the screws cutting into her feet by intermittently rupturing a larger hole in the bag, and rubbing sections of paint off her body. These self-directed tasks in response to pain represent autonomy, highlighting the importance of self-awareness when faced with the contemporary condition of relying on others for fulfilment. The work illustrates both the integration of light and shadow whilst utilising sustenance to transcend temporal stages of suffering