I take photographs of my body using Polaroid cameras. Whilst the image is still developing I attack the surface using a range of different materials and techniques disrupting the chemistry, bruising the emulsion creating strange abstractions. Relinquishing control of the outcome, embracing accidents and mistakes allows an unknown factor to play a part in the creation of the work.
When I started this ongoing body of work, Effigy, I thought it was about me trying to visualise the experience of pain, but over the past year I have come to realise it is more about working through past pain and trauma…..exorcising it. Allowing myself to sit with it, bring it to the surface and expel it from me and in to the images I make. An act of catharsis.
’36 + 8 Polaroids’ a book is now available to order.
You can order it here: www.rikard.co.uk/bookshop
Prints of the polaroids are available on request.
Email me at zaracarpenter@gmail.com
