“CO-DEPENDENCE” INV. No. 1 (2250 x 3000) - Henry Trulli
This work was the first completed and conceptualized part of my investigation, as the ”No. 1” implies. The first work was also the first step into a perspective I had been building. We cope to survive, to fill our needs in ways that overcompensate for greater holes within ourselves. Holes that manifest through states of mind; these states that we cling on to and attempt to climb out of. Hence the ladders, ladders that feel just out of reach and high up. It’s a way out an effective escape but something us as humans find daunting and we would rather find solace in attaching ourselves to people in ways that can be abusive to ourselves or parasitic to others. I have the figures in this piece in contact purely in physicality to emphasize the urge or instinct to express with actions not words. Fight or Flight, an instinct characterized by fear. Humans can be much more than our instincts when we apply our minds and words to our issues to save ourselves, and it all comes at the cost of our in the moment vices and some dignity.
When birthing the visual style I wanted to bring to these works, I looked for ways to practice, and develop, the emotions, metaphors, and forms I wanted to express.
I did this through some studying of anatomy. My skeletons have been a usual motif for me but bringing more emotion and physical accuracy was important. Important thematically to be concise with what the Skeletons were feeling and how they cope.
(I felt like paying attention to the number of bones became less of a concern, because the goal was to capture the emotion and figure for the size of my workspace…)
