Brooke Shaden’s art show “Samsara” will be displayed in the Kenneth P. McCutchan Art Center Gallery 1 until Oct. 20.
She is one of the most recognized modern photographers because of her exhibition at ImageNation Paris in 2016. She is from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, but later moved to Los Angeles, California, where she started her career with self-portraits.
“Samsara” is based on Shaden’s love for mortality.
This body of work focuses on different aspects of death and invites the viewer to participate. She aims to make the audience think about death and how it can affect everything by making them think she is involving them in her art.
The collection is made up of 29 framed pieces and one life-sized sculpture.
The life-sized sculpture is one of the most prominent pieces in this display. It is a partial human body sculpted from and surrounded by dirt.
Because it is not a complete human, it represents how we all die and return to the earth. When we die, part of us is left behind to rot in the dust, part of us moves on (if you believe in the afterlife), and part of us stays alive in memories. This was a very interesting piece to me, but to others, it may be quite eerie.
Overall, my favorite piece was “Excavation.” One reason for this is the colors. The woman and her clothes are very pale. This is then contrasted against the black background and the vines surrounding her. The most fascinating part is the lady’s decapitated head connected to her body by a single vine. This small detail is one of the most interesting parts of the piece, but you do not see it until you look at it up close.
Some of the most beautiful pieces are “Coupled” and “Protected.”
When you first walk into the gallery, these are two of the first pieces you see. Their most compelling features are their bright and vibrant colors. Though the other pieces
are colorful, these two stand out the most. This may also be because of the details in the feathers. When you look close enough, you can see the softness and the individual vein lines.
Another piece with very fine detailing is “Integration.” You can see every individual hair on the elk’s body. The composition of this one is also quite intriguing. I have seen animals and humans spliced together in many different ways for art — anywhere from simply adding animal ears to full-on furries or even mythological creatures such as mermaids. I have not, however, seen it done as it is in this piece. “Integration” shows how all living things, no matter animal or human, will eventually die.
Just as “Excavation” has details you cannot see from far away, so does “Endowment.” I have looked at this piece many times and only just noticed the eyes peeking
out of the bouquet of roses. Compositionally, this one is fascinating as well because you see a woman almost completely buried in roses.
The symbolism of this piece is very clearly shown in that flowers are heavily associated with death because they wilt quickly. Having the woman’s body covered in or made of flowers shows how short our lives are.
The pieces discussed in this article were just a select few of my favorites. There are still many more beautiful pieces in this collection. Each one is fascinating in its own way, either with texture, color, composition or all of the above. The pieces also do their job very well and make you think about life, death and their effects on humanity.