Traces is a series of photographs that document simulated crime scenes at the Crime Scene House, a teaching facility at the Forensic Anthropology Department at Teesside University. Luminescent chemicals used for the forensic examination of trace human substances were captured in near complete darkness under ultraviolet light. The smudges, splatters and drips within the ordinary looking spaces allude to untold stories of violence to the body. Traces was produced during an artist residency at the university, supported by Leverhulme Trust.

Traces

Imprints is a series of photographs of the residues left by birds that have collided with domestic glass windows. Taken in different locations, the gestural marks emerging out of the darkness reflect a fraction of the bird’s flight, arrested through a violent encounter, captured and frozen in time. The powder and dust from the feathers exploded from the impact, forming a constellation.

The glass of a window, with its transparent materiality, allows us to connect to the world outside and to nature, yet its solid physicality is also an impenetrable barrier for birds. While offering a connection between the inside and the outside, the glass simultaneously acts as a separating device. 

Imprints is therefore an ephemeral reminder of man’s impact on nature and the divisions between us. It invites the viewer to consider both the fragility of existence and our increasingly disconnected relationship with the natural world. 


Imprints

Thanatos is a multisensory installation centring on an eponymous original perfume that evokes the scent of a decomposing body discovered in a woodland.

The perfume is the result of a collaboration between the artist, perfumer Euan McCall and forensic anthropologist Dr Anna Williams, whose research on the 400+ volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted during human decomposition underpins the project. Inspired by the observation that some of the decomposition VOCs are identical to some of the natural ingredients used in commercial perfumes, Thanatos is a blend of selected VOCs plus floral and wood scents. It takes the audience on an olfactory journey from the scentscape of an open meadow to the middle of a secluded forest where a decomposing body is discovered.

The installation comprises three distinct but interrelated elements: the perfume Thanatos displayed as a physical product; the scent of Thanatos, experienced through interaction with a sculpture modelled on an autopsy table; and The Search, a suspenseful short film of a search for a cadaver in a forest.

Collaborators: Dr Anna Williams, Forensic Science Consultant: www.forensicanna.com; Euan McCall, Perfumer: www.jorumlaboratories.co.uk

Supported by National Lottery through Arts Council England.

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