This project investigates the concept of ordinary monstrosities, unraveling the boundaries between what are thought of as normal and abnormal, using the body as a primary material. As a starting point, I examined the construction of monstrosities throughout history, from the invention of hysteria in the 19th century to the role of freak shows, where staging was essential and images were manipulated to play a vital role in reinforcing the norm. We hold on to binary ideas of beauty, actively distinguishing between what is beautiful and ugly. I wanted to blur these ideas in this work, show that monstrosities exists within us all and that it is a concept that has been shaped and constructed over time. Through self-representation, I seek to fabricate the monstrosity out of simple things surrounding me, to embrace it rather than reject it. I have always identified with “freaks”, feeling othered by my queerness, and the idea of claiming my own monstrosity really helped me become who I am. This project represents for me the materialization of a long inner journey that I have had to go through since I was a teenager. It is a love letter to the abnormal, a renunciation of being normal. In reference to medical or anatomical iconography, I try to deconstruct normative representations of the body. To what extent is a body, and how can it free itself from the norms that constrain it? The photographs depict an extraordinary act of metamorphosis, where fragments are melded together to create something new. Despite the spectacular aesthetics of the images, it is just a show of banalities and the monstrosity, which seems disturbing at first, ends up revealing its own construction.
(CH / FR 1994) is a photographer based in Lausanne. He graduated with the Bachelor of Photography at ECAL (Lausanne University of Arts and Design). He has taken part in numerous group exhibitions and has received various International Awards (Paris Photo’s Carte Blanche Students 2020; Futures Talents 2021; British Journal of Photography’s Ones to Watch 2021).
matthieucroizier.ch
@matthieucroizier
A half-eaten brain cake is placed into a mirror cabinet, an ear is scaled up to grotesque dimensions, a male body is cartographed and a face is flayed, upended, and cooked tender, then treated with feet, separated from the contorted body, and finally left on the table with a longing look. What happens in this Frankenstein’s laboratory is full of playful lust for imagery and discourse. It’s an interrogation of the body as identity-forming material, a reference point and sensory tool, that is the origin of all our worldly experiences. It is fascinating to observe how, within a disembodied world, where we increasingly act bodiless, where we communicate, create and annihilate outside of our bodies, a work that deals with norms and monstrosities of the human body, is able to develop such a captivating force.
This project investigates the concept of ordinary monstrosities, unraveling the boundaries between what are thought of as normal and abnormal, using the body as a primary material. As a starting point, I examined the construction of monstrosities throughout history, from the invention of hysteria in the 19th century to the role of freak shows, where staging was essential and images were manipulated to play a vital role in reinforcing the norm. We hold on to binary ideas of beauty, actively distinguishing between what is beautiful and ugly. I wanted to blur these ideas in this work, show that monstrosities exists within us all and that it is a concept that has been shaped and constructed over time. Through self-representation, I seek to fabricate the monstrosity out of simple things surrounding me, to embrace it rather than reject it. I have always identified with “freaks”, feeling othered by my queerness, and the idea of claiming my own monstrosity really helped me become who I am. This project represents for me the materialization of a long inner journey that I have had to go through since I was a teenager. It is a love letter to the abnormal, a renunciation of being normal. In reference to medical or anatomical iconography, I try to deconstruct normative representations of the body. To what extent is a body, and how can it free itself from the norms that constrain it? The photographs depict an extraordinary act of metamorphosis, where fragments are melded together to create something new. Despite the spectacular aesthetics of the images, it is just a show of banalities and the monstrosity, which seems disturbing at first, ends up revealing its own construction.
(CH / FR 1994) is a photographer based in Lausanne. He graduated with the Bachelor of Photography at ECAL (Lausanne University of Arts and Design). He has taken part in numerous group exhibitions and has received various International Awards (Paris Photo’s Carte Blanche Students 2020; Futures Talents 2021; British Journal of Photography’s Ones to Watch 2021).
matthieucroizier.ch
@matthieucroizier
A half-eaten brain cake is placed into a mirror cabinet, an ear is scaled up to grotesque dimensions, a male body is cartographed and a face is flayed, upended, and cooked tender, then treated with feet, separated from the contorted body, and finally left on the table with a longing look. What happens in this Frankenstein’s laboratory is full of playful lust for imagery and discourse. It’s an interrogation of the body as identity-forming material, a reference point and sensory tool, that is the origin of all our worldly experiences. It is fascinating to observe how, within a disembodied world, where we increasingly act bodiless, where we communicate, create and annihilate outside of our bodies, a work that deals with norms and monstrosities of the human body, is able to develop such a captivating force.