Frida Kahlo

From Tate Modern's exhibition guide (9 June-9 October 2005):

"The Mexican artist Frida Kahlo (1907–1954) is now regarded as one of the most significant artists of the twentieth century...

Severely injured in a bus crash in her youth, Kahlo took up painting when confined to her bed. Kahlo’s life was changed forever by the accident and the portrayal of her body, wracked with pain, is a recurring theme in her paintings. Kahlo said that there were two accidents in her life –  the second was her tempestuous relationship with the renowned Mexican muralist Diego Rivera. It is in her iconic self portraits, unrivalled in their poignant beauty, that Kahlo depicts both her isolation and also her indomitable spirit and sense of self...

Kahlo draws upon a diverse range of influences, including Surrealism, ancient Aztec belief, popular Mexican folklore, Eastern philosophy and medical imagery. For example, her chosen format of small-scale oil paintings on metal, inspired by stylistically naive devotional paintings, reflects her Catholic heritage. Yet Kahlo subverts this language by creating taboo-breaking subject matter, dealing with the frailty of the body, birth, life and death."

Self-portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird

Self-portrait with Monkey, 1938

The Broken Column, 1944

Damien Rudd

From Damien Rudd's website: http://www.birdsofpanic.com

Objects of intimacy (2011)

A person’s pillow is their most intimate object. For this project I have photographed 5 pillows from 5 different people. Each pillow is at a different stage of transformation relative to its age and frequency of use. 

With these images I aim to show something that is generally hidden. To view them is to see a part of the owner; the history is the relationship between the owner and the object. The pillow is moulded and transformed by the markings of bodily fluids so it becomes as individual and distinctive as that of a fingerprint. It is no longer an innate manufactured object, but is now impregnated with life and mutation.

Each pillow was photographed in the same manner a forensic scientist may examine criminal evidence. The hidden and discreet is now open for public close study. When an individual’s pillow is relieved publicly, it causes a sensation of embarrassment and shame. In our culture, the exertion of bodily fluids is considered distasteful. This is especially true when it may be associated to sleeping in one’s bed (unlike what one may do in the bathroom.) Like other forms of perverse viewing, it is for this reason we find pleasure in viewing it. We are all able to relate to this phenomenon, as each of us owns a pillow as we do underwear or any other object of intimate privacy. 

Our reception is created in the mind's eye, we imagine what we cannot see, that which only existed in the past. We find it somehow disturbing, yet fascinating, as it is one human occurrence that unites us and emphases that in the end, we are just merely human.