Raglan art exhibition portrays everlasting scars words leave on people

Raglan-based artist Élisabeth Denis, also known as Ella Doucira, is set to reveal her photo exhibition Cold-blooded dermatographic locutions in Raglan’s Wharf Gallery in February, portraying the everlasting scars words can leave on people.

The photos show individual portraits of five women and one man who have hurtful sentences someone said to them in the past written on their bare bodies. This exhibition is meant to encourage viewers to think twice about what they say to others remembering that words can be as sharp as a knife and that they can leave scars.

A “confessional booth” where visitors can write down phrases they wish they never had to hear will be installed as an interactive component to the exhibition. Those written words will be burned after the exhibition, to liberate the visitors from these confidential
incantations.

There will also be a gentle and almost secretive soundtrack hovering over the gallery room with interconnected murmurs of the six models reciting the lines they wrote, reciting what’s constantly rambling in their heads, Denis says.

“If each word you [said] to others were to stain your skin forever, as well as staining the skin of the person you would be speaking to, would you twist your tongue six times before speaking out?”

To explore this concept, she asked five women and one man to write down words that family, partners or friends once said to them years ago, but that are still on their minds today.

The exhibition Cold-blooded dermatographic locutions carries the message the comments people make can stick with you for life. Photo / Supplied

Then, Denis and some helpers wrote those impulsive and hurtful words on the models’ bodies using black marker pens so the scribbles took about two days to vanish from their skins.

“I was hoping that this could be a therapeutic way for them to purge of those words, or at least, show their existence, which usually, are invisible when someone lays eyes on these [people].

The series of A0 prints along with the models’ confessions will be revealed at the Wharf Gallery on Saturday, February 19.

For more information on the exhibition click here.

For more information on Ella Doucira and her work visit her Instagram or Facebook page.

The Details
What: Photo exhibition, Cold-blooded dermatographic locutions
When: Saturday, February 19, 6pm to 9pm
Where: The Wharf Gallery, Raglan
Tickets: Free entry