London-based photographer, [Chloe Rosser](https://instagram.com/chloe_rosser_?igshid=1hkp9hcq8uny5), celebrates her first solo exhibition in the U.S. at the [**Elizabeth Houston Gallery**](https://www.elizabethhoustongallery.com/chloe-rosser-function/). Through May 30th, the series entitled **_Function_**, explores animosity of the human form through sculptural nudes. The contortions and angles highlight the bodily tensions of each pose while heads, hands, necks, and limbs, are subtracted through composition alone. Stripping identity from diverse human forms, Rosser alchemizes the body into art.
**_When did your fascination with the human form begin?_**
In a way, it's very simple: from living in one.
Our experiences of our bodies are collected over time, and shape our relationships with both the human form in general and our personal anatomies. As a society, we draw attention to the human form constantly, and as a teenager going through puberty, I became aware of it in a new way. I felt the pressure and emotional weight of owning a body, as well as a deeper understanding of the sensations of inhabiting it. I've seen illness up close in my family. That again shifts your understanding. I felt the alienation that comes with being suddenly forced into a body that is full of pain, or doesn't work in the way you are used to. I saw the body as a vehicle that we maneuver and as a conduit for our communications with the external world. I was reminded of the base functions that the body performs and how easily we take those for granted.
I think that's why my fascination with the body goes beyond the aesthetics of the figure. I am occupied with the experience of inhabiting a body.
**_What do you hope to reveal by capturing intimate and anonymous sculptural nudes?_**
I hope to give space to really consider the physicality of the flesh. When you can see the identifying features of a person, you consider their personality. You make assumptions about them, even if it's unconscious, and you don't have the space to focus on the body as a sculpture. So I hide the face, hands, hair and genitals to abstract the figures in an attempt to create something universally intimate. We all have a body which we know in detail, and an opportunity to see the mechanics of a nude separated from personality can allow us to appreciate aspects of the body we wouldn't usually. When a figure is abstracted and desexualized, we can pay closer attention to detail and form, and potentially even find new personal relationships to the subject.
**_How have classical nudes shaped the figures of Function?_**
The history of the nude in art is long and fascinating, but in the context of my work I have been much more inspired by later work than by what some might think of as “classical”. Egon Schiele is up there for me – I like the jutting angles of his figures. A particular favorite of mine is his piece 'Male Nude Crouching, Back View', a minimal image where we see an androgynous figure, sat curled away from the viewer.
I am also repeatedly drawn to both Bacon's manipulations of the body and Freud's textured, tactile studies.
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**_Why is it essential that ”imperfections” remain in each image?_**
Because the human body is not “perfect". Despite the abstraction, these remain depictions of the human figure and to me, the marks demonstrate that these bodies are lived in. Just as the marks on the walls of the rooms they inhabit illustrate that these spaces are lived in, too. There is beauty in that for me. I also feel a responsibility to represent the human body with honesty.
Throughout _Function,_ there are visual details that are like notations of actions. In one image, a red mark can be seen on the side of a figure, clearly left from scratching a recent itch. Another form bears the imprint of an item of clothing. These marks are like small records of human gestures and give us a glimpse of something intimate.
**_Despite the world state of things, what’s next for you?_**
To me it doesn’t feel so crucial to be thinking about what’s next. With everything that’s going on at the moment I’m focussing on now. So many plans and events have been changed or cancelled in any case.
Longer term, although I have been exploring ideas for new work for a while now I haven’t been talking about it yet. My process is a long one, and it is possible that this forced period of reflection may turn out to be an opportunity for me to get further into that. The world feels like it's being totally shaken up and it’s hard to know what it will be like when we emerge – everything is changing so fast at the moment that it feels like we can’t know yet what we will need art to do for us next.
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