The Good Hurt
The Good Hurt discusses a relationship between photographer and sitter, artist and model and husband and wife through my own experience of art making. I address the balance of power between two individuals invested in each other, emotionally and contractually bound, and our individual relationships with the camera. In collaboration with my (now ex) husband I aimed to address the struggle for control in our relationship through 'tests of love’ agreed through trust, negotiation and compromise. The Good Hurt explores power dynamics between husband and wife whilst testing the boundaries of photographer and sitter. I am interested in who plays the role of dominant or submissive and how these change or blend depending on circumstance or situations.
Through this work I expressed adoration and celebration of him physically, exploring materiality and his surface, whilst he demonstrated a devotion through suffering mild discomfort and humiliation. I’m interested in what permissions the camera grants us in these situations, and why it’s okay, or not, to ask and to photograph these acts.
Initially these experiments begun softly however each ‘victory’ led me to push further towards increasingly demanding and challenging acts. The sitter set boundaries to preserve his dignity or avoid physical pain or harm, which I attempted to cross, and push our limits aesthetically and conceptually. I turned to using replicas of my husband, duplicated in plaster and soap, which I then subjected further to more aggressive acts. Through investigating his physical form I express my frustration at the realisation that a partner might not fit the mold or bear the form I want for them. He emerges from my mold faultless and my acts of ‘art-making’ deface him until he is not clearly recognisable as himself, or is free of my hand. During the creation of this work our relationship ended allowing me to further reflect on these acts, in hindsight I believe I was documenting the complex feelings of a relationship in deterioration.