FLAYING

In my work, I often remove a skin of its body. This is what I call skinning or flaying. In the ATELIER/skinning you can see how I practise this. But taking the skin of a body is more than a practical skill. By the act of flaying I separate the skin and the inner body, with all its consequences. It is an intense act, being both violent and gentle. A very intimate and vulnerable act, which I like to surround with rituals and respect.

Roland Barthes makes a beautiful metaphor of the flayed and the lover:

--Ecorche / flayed

The particular sensibility of the amorous subject, which renders him vulnerable, defenceless to the slightest injuries.

I am "a mass of irritable substance." I have no skin (except for caresses). Parodying Socrates in the Phaedrus, one should speak of the Flayed Man, and not the Feathered Man, in matters of love. (Freud)

Source: Lovers Discourse by Roland Barthes

 

Because flaying is such an intense act and the consequences of that are beyond what I can fully grasp, I am intrigued by it. Within my work I am constantly questioning what happens when I separate this skin from this body?