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Beautiful Decay in Crokes' Artwork

 

            Crokes' piece consists of 3 digital works, each signifying a different portrait of a female, with a decaying and somewhat rotting face. The Faces comprise of cracked and fractured features, some of which are rotted beyond recognition. Parts of the figures faces have been removed and some parts distorted and attached in a collage effect, making them seem corpse like. The Light Pink and yellow tone created a soft gentle hue, which in contrast to the decay; create a beautiful yet harrowing image of the female model. When inspected closer, a definite rust like texture can be observed, creating a sense of aging, and seem as if to be skin peeling or falling off the face. The viewer is instinctively nauseated by the idea of decaying flesh.
             Crokes work to date has been about self-image, self-representation -true and false. Through researching the effect of social media and its obsession with perfection, Croke began to create work which reconstructs the 'perfect' through deconstructing and collaging of found and self-made images. Recent research into the world of cosmetic surgery, and the fight against aging, led her to create portraits depicting decay. Further exploration into the writings of A. C. Grayling, she became fascinated with the idea of decaying flesh being part of the natural cycle of things, and what if we were to accept this. Grayling theorises that although we find flesh that is too-decayed nauseating, it is simply a process of transfer- turning the world around us into ourselves by allowing it to eat us, (Grayling, 2003).
             "In either direction the processes of digestion are nothing other than the ceaseless pulse of things entering into and leaving each other's naturesAlthough the idea of decaying flesh is stomach churning. As Dekkers portrays as he describes the cheesy smell of a rotting mouse- it's a huge part of his point is what we see as decay, rottenness, collapse and demise, is a condition for the renewal of life and also its fulfillment," (Grayling, 2003).


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