Blade (2025) uses contrast as a form of confrontation. The measuring tape which is usually an object of supposed neutrality has been turned into a tight choking collar. (in the first photograph seen in the publication and the web exhibition) The measuring tape sits around the neck and constricts, binds and judges. By wrapping the tape around the neck- it has been transformed into an implement of violence, furthermore, the flower is something that has been masked but inside it is blood erupting from the cuts.
The figure is monochromatic and desaturated coming out of the darkness showing the depletion of identity from imposed ideals. The flower representing blood and the constrictive measuring tape choking and rupturing out are the only elements with colour. The photograph does not show a face or eyes- the figure is anonymous thus insisting that this body could be any woman’s body- every woman’s body caught in the same quiet grip.
The second photograph has the body cropped towards the shoulder. Again, it is anonymous with the measuring tape wrapping around the shoulder and upper arm like a snake. It attempts to compress and constrict the body to indent the skin leaving a welt remaining long after the tape has been removed. The contrast between the skin and the tape intensifies the tension between them – the tape is a weapon used against the woman. A weapon that patriarchal society has created to control and enforce judgement that shifts and changes their identities to society’s will.
Furthermore, both of the photographs show the greyed skin which has been drained of warmth and identity- signifying the emotional depletion. Though, unlike the first photograph; this one has no flower bleeding out. The photograph is instead harsher- refusing a metaphor and the harm is more literal through the lines that are etched into the skin that create scars in the process.
Overall, the photographs together successfully show the silent brutality of bodily judgment. They expose the violence that is woven into the metrics (measuring tape) we are taught societally to think and see as neutral. Thus, we are viewing the real damage that societal pressure has- often the pressure is silent and hidden but here we are seeing the flesh organised into numbers and the skin imprinted.