(click image for more details)Winterfruit, 2008
Polyester resin, wax
35cm x 30cm x 20cm
Prettypretty, 2008
35cm x 30cm x 20cm
Referencing the traditions of vanitas, still life and nature morte, Rebecca Stevenson has termed the word 'Carniflora' to describe the juxtaposition of the visceral and the sensual in her work. Combining the fleshy (the 'carni') and the plant (the 'flora') 'carniflora' also resonates with the dual process of butchery and beautification she uses in her examination of the relationship between innocence, consumption and desire.
Intended to attract and repel, Stevenson's sculptures mimic the appearance of skin and bone, employing a range of hard and soft materials (especially cast metal and wax) to produce animal bodies and skulls. Cutting into them, she then adds 'growths' of flowers and fruits to these 'corpses', like some funereal wreath-like pus oozing from a wound. The candy-coloured
materials and titles including words such as 'bunny', 'cutie' and 'innocent' deliberately contrast with the inherent violence of Stevenson's slicing.
'When I cut into my work, I am also undertaking a kind of investigation... I seek to expose the emotions and beliefs that affect how we approach the body's forbidden landscapes – ranging from fear and disgust to fascination and desire. It is a web of sensations and meanings as densely interwoven as the tissues of the body itself.'1
Paul Stone, 2008
1. Artist's story, a-n Magazine, July 2001
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find out more about Paul Stone
