AS TEETH SHATTER, is a project examining the consumption of violent and aggressive messages promoted through society. These images are from a four hour performance-to-camera piece whereby photographer Steven Kenny responded to invisible inflictions placed upon his body, reacting accordingly.

AS TEETH SHATTER, project proposal by Steven Kenny.

I have become increasingly aware of the intrusion of imagery, the onslaught of pictures that penetrate both our vision and mind. Endlessly submitted to the constructed image, we are numbed, mislead and deceived. What is real has become a lie, and this artifice has become increasingly physical, pushed further and closer towards the terrifyingly existent. An endless barrage of imagery that both simultaneously fascinates and repulses assaults us continuously, and it is this conflicting construct that I find particularly intriguing to engage with, critique and challenge.

Much of my research and practice is largely centred in exploring notions surrounding the human subconscious; specifically examining both learnt and absorbed bodily gestures and behaviours. Moving between the unstable spaces of photography and performance, I aim to enquire, challenge and provoke debate and subsequent discourse in regards to representations of the odd, taboo and ignored. Often using my own body as a tool of expression, I situate myself as a passive aggravator, exploring the ever-changing dynamics between the author and the observer.

Through placing myself into the frame I hope to explore the subconsciously learnt, embedded and absorbed gestures that are excessively produced in society, with specific emphasis to the more disturbing of behaviours; the outlet of violence and aggression.

Violent and aggressive imagery is continuously simulated for public consumption, liberally distributed through literature to trashy movie slashers. They are the pinnacle of behavioural gestures that contain a conflict of representation, they simultaneously both repulse yet strangely are constructed for our gratification. As a result, violence has become a spectacle, a grand show crafted from missing body parts, bloodied flesh and broken teeth.

I intend to investigate the awkward tensions that lie between the acceptance and normality of constructed aggression and violence. Wanting to mimic such artificial gestures to deconstruct and re-examine their significance. Through the power of the image to both mislead and seduce I will utilise illusions and artifice to reveal and exploit the uneasy foundation of imagery that co-exists in part because of escapist pleasures, and the morbidly real.

Using my own body as a conduit, I will expel imagery thrown at me through culture. I am not cleansing my body, but instead continually vomiting the poison that I have been forced to digest. Such actions are not therapeutic but instead akin to a fetishistic obsession. My body as a container will ingest in reverse the cycle of consumption, throwing back into public reach promoted gestures that are ignored. My role as the author will become an integral element to the work, moving continually between passive receiver and aggressive promoter, to critique how violent products of cultural consumption affect individual and collective behaviours.

From 10 - 14 June Steven Kenny will be exhibiting work at Free Range 2010 - Europe’s Largest Graduate Art & Design Show.