Saintly Cadavers

by Nora Geist :: You need to be a member to contact artists →Join :: Portfolio

"Stations of a blessed sacrilege" (1995). Georges Bataille’s erotic novella “The Story of the Eye” is the basis for my photographic narrative of this (un)Holy Communion, which exposes the fragile theatrics of power. I captured the original content in black & white film and then hand-coloured each photo to add a grotesque and theatrical quality to the narrative. The subjects’ skin resembles polished wax, satirising the spectacle of 'incorruptible' saints displayed in reliquaries of various churches, cathedrals and basilicas. The occurrence of incorruptibility—in which the bodies of some saints are thought to have been miraculously preserved—is sometimes referred to as "saintly cadavers". I used a Konica AUTOREFLEX T4 35mm Film SLR Manual camera throughout the series. Click on each thumbnail to get a larger image with more details as well as even more photo outtakes.