“but skin masks cover grief masks” [Shane Nielson]
Skins (of grief), featuring Catherine Owen as creator and model, is a series (shot in 2010-2011) by photographer Karen Moe, tracing manifestations of grieving over the course of the year since her spouse of 8 years, Chris Matzigkeit, died suddenly of a heart attack at 29.
She describes the three shoots, totaling 12 framed images whose titles are drawn from her collection of poems, Designated Mourner (ECW 2014):
“All three shoots are represented by one large image to depict the connections and disparities between a range of grief-moments. Then, the first two shoots are presented as four diptyches. In the former, three months after his death, I went to the urban forest and spread Chris's ashes on my flesh, both marking me as a widow, someone seen as unclean or untouchable by society, and performing an act of deep intimacy and honouring. For the latter, six months after, I donned items of his clothing. We were similar sizes, a fact that emphasizes the connecting bond between us. This shoot is also shown in two solo shots.
The last shoot took place ten months afterwards, on Valentines’ Day. These pieces, presented as five solo prints, feature me dressed in sexual dominatrix fashion, wearing clothes either he bought or made for me, embellished with ropes, boas and other erotic props. In these photos I am performing for him "beyond the grave", speaking to how a relationship continues with the lost person for an extensive time after their death.
The photographer, Karen Moe, is also my close friend. Her collaboration was crucial as I would not have otherwise been able to access and acknowledge this vulnerability, a gift that compatriots and artists can offer each other in this detached society.”
TITLES: "The way the dead have entered me and suddenly I am many crows"
Skins (of grief), featuring Catherine Owen as creator and model, is a series (shot in 2010-2011) by photographer Karen Moe, tracing manifestations of grieving over the course of the year since her spouse of 8 years, Chris Matzigkeit, died suddenly of a heart attack at 29.
She describes the three shoots, totaling 12 framed images whose titles are drawn from her collection of poems, Designated Mourner (ECW 2014):
“All three shoots are represented by one large image to depict the connections and disparities between a range of grief-moments. Then, the first two shoots are presented as four diptyches. In the former, three months after his death, I went to the urban forest and spread Chris's ashes on my flesh, both marking me as a widow, someone seen as unclean or untouchable by society, and performing an act of deep intimacy and honouring. For the latter, six months after, I donned items of his clothing. We were similar sizes, a fact that emphasizes the connecting bond between us. This shoot is also shown in two solo shots.
The last shoot took place ten months afterwards, on Valentines’ Day. These pieces, presented as five solo prints, feature me dressed in sexual dominatrix fashion, wearing clothes either he bought or made for me, embellished with ropes, boas and other erotic props. In these photos I am performing for him "beyond the grave", speaking to how a relationship continues with the lost person for an extensive time after their death.
The photographer, Karen Moe, is also my close friend. Her collaboration was crucial as I would not have otherwise been able to access and acknowledge this vulnerability, a gift that compatriots and artists can offer each other in this detached society.”
TITLES: "The way the dead have entered me and suddenly I am many crows"
"Twist it into art, shoot it up, fuck it hard"
"You could not endure why could you not endure"
"I'm so much better at being empty than before"
"Stilled your particular, wild singing"
"When you dance beside me in your wounds"
"A bat with its ragged cotton wings out"
"What I didn't see, too"
"Sex with absence, with the body of smoke"
"Though I sifted and plunged a long time"
"Alone in our own weird version of holiness"
"This, all that's left when the water is burned off"
"You could not endure why could you not endure"
"I'm so much better at being empty than before"
"Stilled your particular, wild singing"
"When you dance beside me in your wounds"
"A bat with its ragged cotton wings out"
"What I didn't see, too"
"Sex with absence, with the body of smoke"
"Though I sifted and plunged a long time"
"Alone in our own weird version of holiness"
"This, all that's left when the water is burned off"
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