Cubic Torsos – Interview with Chloe Rosser
Function 1, Chloe Rosser, Photograph
1. How would you describe your work?
It’s an unsettling exploration into how we are situated within our own skin. I photograph the human figure in contorted poses in bare home spaces, looking at our fraught and complicated relationship with the body.
2. What inspired you to start working in this style?
For a long time I had been interested in the human body and how diverse our experiences of having one are. I had been photographing it for a while, trying to abstract it through different techniques, none of which I was very happy with. It was when I took a shot where no arms, legs or head were visible, only a cubic torso, that I felt I was really connecting with something. I think I was so struck by it because the photograph was of a whole body as it looked in that moment, but it looked so surreal in its contortion. It was unnerving to see the body like that.
3. Were you always a photographer?
Pretty much, yes. I studied photography at Falmouth University, although before that I began a degree in Physics and Philosophy. After uni I assisted and shot for myself. I did also work as a framer for a while alongside photography, which gave me loads of helpful knowledge for exhibiting.
4. What, if anything, do you want viewers of your work to feel and/or think?
Everyone is going to have their own reactions and views when looking at artwork. I don’t want to dictate what people think but I do hope I am able to give them a bit of a fresh look at the human body. Maybe they will even see something new in it, or appreciate it in a different way.
5. Your work features bodies of all shapes and sizes; how do you choose your models?
With Form & Function, I really wanted to work with people who had a range of body shapes as well as individuals who identified differently. I photographed people aged from about 20 - 70, people of different skin tones and people who identified as female, male, gender fluid and trans. And then of course to show them all on equal terms. Some of my models were people I already knew, where as others I got in contact with for the project. I worked with both experienced life models, as well as people who had never modelled nude before.
6. Your style is quite unusual for modern nudes, yet is reminiscent of classical marble sculpture; do you feel particularly aligned to either?
I feel somewhat in between modern nude and classical sculpture. When I am composing my images and planning poses I definitely think of the body in sculptural terms, but my aim is not to match them to cultural ideals of beauty, as classical sculpture so often did. Instead, I seek to abstract and alter the human figure, so that we might see it anew and adjust our relationship to it.
7. Who, or what, influences you?
The body itself. Seeing it move and bend. Sculpture is also a big influence for me. Berlinde de Bruyckere’s work especially. She creates these beautiful sculptures of the body and they are all imperfect, incomplete and anatomically incorrect. She layers up wax of different colours so that you get all these blues, pinks and reds arriving at the milky surface of the skin. It’s so delicate and it feels so intimate. They are often in forlorn poses, sometimes curled up, or maybe clinging onto a pillow form. They are incredible to see and they evoke a huge emotional response in me. I wanted to create that with my images.
8. What is most important to you within and around your work?
Being accepting of the human body in its natural state.
9. What do you hope to achieve by your work?
To make something that people connect with on a personal level, and maybe even show them a sculptural side of the human figure they hadn’t appreciated yet.
10. Can you tell me a little about your book/ gallery/ any shows you have (so our followers can see your work!)
My book features work from the Form & Function projects, as well as an essay by Laura Noble. It’s available at: www.stayfreepublishing.co.uk
I am represented in the UK by L A Noble Gallery, who show contemporary photography.
Instagram: @lanoblegallery
I’ll be exhibiting in a solo exhibition with Elizabeth Houston Gallery in NYC 12 Feb - 28 March 2020. It will be my first solo show in the USA so I’m pretty excited.
Instagram: @elizabethhoustongallery