Continuing the themes of his book Abuse, the acclaimed Italian photographer Alessio Bolzoni presents Abuse II, The Uncanny, the second part of the photographic project that he started in 2017.
Abuse II, The Uncanny is a study of the human form, in which Bolzoni explores concepts of abuse and discomfort. The subjects’ bodies are photographed in an objective, almost scientific way, sprawled across the floor in various states of contortion, made even more disconcerting by their heads and faces being invisible. Without this ‘identifier’, the viewer is unable to place their age, gender, or the colour of their skin, creating a feeling of the uncanny that is extended through the sense of an unknown viewer.
Presented in the form of a fanzine inserted inside the publication is a further series of images, entitled Abuse II, Event, which is comprised of photographs of clothing.
The motivation for these works arose from a Syrian refugee who Bolzoni met on a Milanese street in the summer of 2016. He was selling the clothes he had worn during his hazardous journey to Southern Europe. Bolzoni bought the clothes and photographed them unwashed, replete with perspiration and other bodily traces. In spite of its marked absence, the clothing retains the resonance of human presence, with trousers and t-shirts turned inside out and arranged in shapes that echo the bodies that wore them.
As a whole, the three parts of the Abuse project reflect obliquely on the forces both physical and emotional that act upon our bodies: how these manifest in forms of abuse, the traces they leave behind, and the liminal space between life and death.
The book will be available to purchase through John Rule Book Distribution and Donlon Books, London.
Book Launch 4 February 2019
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/ Words by Laura Bonne /
