Re-touched

Abstract

Re-touched is a collaborative project by collage artist Sarah Eyre and fashion photographer Xanthe Hutchinson. Both artists share an interest in the female body, particularly the notion of pleasure in display and gaze between women and the body. The body of work that forms Re-touched combines photographic and collage methods in order to embody a sense of sensuality through the opening up and enfolding of the female form, on set and through the process of collage. The artists position their work within a framework of feminist theory that questions the binary thinking around the gaze. They draw on the writing of Laura U. Marks to bring a haptic quality to their photographic and collage interventions to the image, and in inviting the viewer to be touched by their images. Through this series of photographic collages, they have established a visual and tactile approach that utilizes the body, is collaborative and re-figures the power structures between model, photographer and viewer. Their images offer a way of rethinking and reshaping representations of the female nude.