Color Bones
Conceptual Photography
2020
The project “Color Bones” involves six 9.5inch x 13inch images printed through matte paper. Adapted from scanned X-ray film, images are further edited and adjusted in Photoshop. Objects in the same photo share a similarity in color, creating a visual resonance. The marks and stains retained on the images from the X-ray leave the images a handmade quality, feeling like sketches. The photos are intentionally taken in a straight-on angle, which flattens the three-dimensional object into a two-dimensional image that eliminates depth, creating patterns that cover the bones like tattoos staining on the skin.
The project discusses an opposition of “life and death”. The black bones on the white background present a sense of solemnity: for me, the texture of bones is cold, bare, lifeless. They represent death, the eventual destination of life, which happens to all humans. Serving as the basis of the image, these shapes of bones determine the fundamental tone of the images - still, peaceful, and rational. By contrast, on the upper layers are colorful objects, varying from food to animals, trash to flowers. The texture of these objects contradicts sharply with bones, as they are softer, wetter, stickier. In combining these inconsistent even opposite objects, I am able to express my interpretation of life.
