Label Text: Jacqueline Hayden started to confront the viewer with the aging body—of women in particular—in 1991. Almost two decades later she took close-up photographs of the dying body of her mother in the span of three months and turned them into the series "Passing Away." In her artist’s statement we read, “’The skin is the first organ to die,’ the nurse said.” Hayden presents this large and important organ in a way that renders it abstract while leaving the organic structures visible. Her interest in the ethereal inspired the decision to print on silk sheets. While the quality of silk alludes to the fragility and translucency of skin, the lightweight material also moves in the slightest air current. This subtle movement can be seen as a symbol of the ever-transforming nature of life.
BJ, 2014
Tags: deaths; elderly; funeral rites and ceremonies; mothers; bodies Link to share this object record: https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=AC+2013.104 |