Bethany Marett

I operate across mediums, primarily printmaking and sculpture. Manipulating scale and working with the print of the body is a way I imply the presence of the body without representing it overtly. I layer materials possessing plastic and bodily qualities to them, such as silicone and latex, against myself, fragmenting and reimagining myself as a reaction to culturally imbued shame and objectification. I want to empower and challenge the notion of the abject, the feeling of disgust, in particular of why this is a term that historically overwhelmingly applies to women’s bodies.

My prints consider the notion that skin becomes ‘poreless’ as a response to society’s pressure on women’s bodies and the quest for perfection. Our bodies are being ‘stopped up’ to the point that they become plastic, as the lines blur between human and cyborg. My own skin represents the translucent and fragile boundary upon which the conflict between accepting my own mortality and a deep-rooted squeamishness plays out. I am reconstructing my body through print; creating new, plasticised skins for myself, working with life casting as an extension of the expanded field of printmaking.