Leaky Bodies No. 3
Sarah Firth (born 1984)

Materials: timber birdcages, expanding foam, cotton, fur and steel
Date: 2006

Artist’s Statement:
This is the third piece from my “Leaky Bodies” series, comprised of twelve anthropomorphised timber cages, each in varying states of breakdown. Through these works I was interested in exploring the mind-body dualism in which the mind seeks to construct and control the body. Our bodies are our homes. We are natural earthly organisms that feel, change, grow, age, consume, process and discharge. However in the modernised world we are emersed in a framework, of largely unconscious, two-dimensional fantasy images and ideals. This can promote an absurd internal and external struggle against the natural grace and processes of the body. People try to domesticate the body; they rip hair out, cut bits o_, add bits on, scent it, paint the surface, strap it in, stop feeding it and develop numerous strategies for managing. The body can become a masterpiece of refinement or a monster of excess. My objective was to create a gritty and poetic work, marrying the sensual with the grotesque, encouraging thought about the nature and physicality of human existence.