Liminal

A PHOTOBOOK BY KRISTINE URBAN

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CONFESSIONS TO MY BODY

This project began as I reflected on the body I had spent so much time thinking about. Ever since I became aware of my body as a young girl, staring into the huge mirror in the ballet studio where I would take lessosn at twice a week, I became absorbed by the person in the reflection. Creating flaws and trying ceaselessly to make myself smaller to fit the standards society had told me would make me more worthy of love. Living in a world flattened by technology and messaging about what we should look like and what we should feel is exhausting and diminishes the complexity of what beauty could look like. This work is a reflection and confrontation of the unspoken truths we carry within our physical forms. Our body is the one relationship we will have our whole lives. The one person who can never leave, try as you might to escape the body or hate the body. It stays loyal to the master. Collection of the anonymous repsonses was the beginning of the work on this art piece. I wanted to create a digital place where someone could speak freely and anonymously about their body, and share their thoughts and feelings free from the confines of identity. I wanted to hear what people would say to themselves if given the space to do so without repercussions or rewards. From this I created a digital confessional booth, and spread access to respond all over the city of Florence, and the international reach of the ubiquitous social media. The responses were harrowing, heartbreaking and deeply resonant with the universal experience of having a body. The sharing of intimate thoughts and feelings makes us as a collective less alone more seen. This collection designed to share stories, truths, and feelings, to bring us all closer to each other and ourselves. And to encourage a little bit more compassion for both.

EVERYTHING EATS AND IS EATEN

Everything Eats and is Eaten is a biting investigation of the death and mortality that has inspired fashion and the related fashion photography derived from it. The title comes from a song called Ingydar by Adrianne Lenker, from the lyric that sings, “Everything eats and is eaten, time is fed”.The book draws works from the likes of Helmut Newton, Rei Kawakubo, Alexander McQueen, Gareth Pugh, and many more. It begins with the Dialogue between Fashion and Death by Giacomo Leopardi, written in 1824, to give a context for the way fashion and death are intrinsically intertwined over the centuries, and to mirror the attitude and culture surrounding towards fashion in contemporary times.

Death can be a muse or master, depending on how it inflicts its pain, but the underlying message is to seek beauty in the macabre, and embrace the rebirth beyond the weight of mortality.

Fashion is a divisive and potent medium and a strong reflection of the state of our culture. It is also the 2nd leading pollutant after the oil and gas sector. You may love it or hate it but it kills us indifferently.