Laurie Blakeslee

Object 41
inkjet prints
10 x 15 in.

My current work includes the digital series “objects” which focuses on the female body.  Through isolated close-up fragments of women’s bodies, this work questions beauty, desirability, gender and representation.  I use the inherent descriptive qualities of photography, as well as abstracted fragments, to bring about questions of identity and origin.  These fragments of flesh force questions of expectation.  Issues of voyeurism are played out through vignettes of once-familiar forms turned strangely grotesque.  Seemingly erogenous zones become unclear or completely benign.  The possibility that these images may be digitally manipulated mirrors society’s obsession with the practice of cosmetically altering the body to achieve an unattainable concept of beauty.

© Laurie Blakeslee