The "SOME PEOPLE" Essays
Scars and Marks by Chloe Rosser | Edited by Kimberly J. Soenen March 31, 2025
(Function 1, 1. Photo by Chloe Rosser.)
Scars and Marks are a Record and Story of the Body Being Alive
by Chloe Rosser
The human body is the tool that we have for communicating and interacting with the rest of the world.
There is an element of alienation present throughout my work, Form and Function.
It is in response to the fraught and complicated relationship we have with the body.
There is a disconnect between the imagery and information we are surrounded by on a day-to-day basis, and the reality of owning a body. It is also a very personal relationship that changes and evolves over our lifetime.
I delve into the disconnect we have with the human figure through contorted poses and compositions of figures who are free from identifying features. Without the head, hands and hair, we do not look at these forms in the usual way, making assumptions and judgments about the individual. Instead, we are free to see them as sculpture and derive conclusions from them that we otherwise might not see.
Although the forms can be very “inhuman,” there is also a delicate sense of humanity about them. The poses, often fetal-like, capture a vulnerability and fragility.
A particular focus for me is the experience of that point at which our body misbehaves, declines or sounds alarms - when it stops working in the way that we are used to or expect. To be betrayed by your own body like this is a frightening and alienating experience. It’s also something that we all go through to some degree, whether it is breaking a limb, developing a chronic disease or simply losing flexibility with age.
Above all, the strangest and most life altering experience is witnessing the body ceasing to work entirely.
I witnessed, first hand, someone going through the long, slow experience of losing control of their body, and because of that process, their connection to the outside world. Undoubtedly, that experience drastically altered my personal relationship with the human form.
A key aspect of this work is the interaction between the figures. They display their humanity through their touch. There is tenderness and trust in the way they hold and curl around each other. In some poses, they lean on each other, balancing and supporting one another. They hold positions that are only possible because of the other figure. They must work together to reach a state of equilibrium.
The images I photograph are shot in homes. Stripped bare, the spaces do not give away too much information about the owner, but instead, act as a reflection of the owner’s mental state. Marks on the walls and floors point to situations and actions that have taken place in that space. They are proof that the space is lived in, just as scars and marks on the figure’s skin are a record and story of the body being alive.
To me, the body is a delicate and universally vulnerable housing with which we interact with the world around us.