"Stations of a blessed sacrilege" (1995). This series employs symbolic imagery of sacrilege and vulnerability to provoke reflection on institutional power, inviting dialogue rather than offence. Saintly Cadavers explores the tension between spiritual ideals and clerical authority, critiquing systemic hypocrisy while honouring faith itself. Rooted in feminist theology and inspired by Georges Bataille’s The Story of the Eye, the work challenges sanitised portrayals of the body and sanctity, revealing both as sites of conflict, desire, and grotesque beauty. The characters include the Saint—the convent’s earnest young chaplain, embodying spiritual authority; the Countess—the granddaughter of the convent’s aristocratic patron, who infiltrates the cloister, donning the habit as a costume to appropriate and violate sacred power; and the Abbess—newly installed and seemingly reserved, yet deviously complicit, having invited the Countess to stand with her in confronting and the priest in a ritual that blurs defiance, punishment, and desire. Originally captured on black-and-white film, each photograph was hand-coloured to give the skin a waxen sheen, evoking the spectacle of ‘incorruptible’ saints preserved in reliquaries. This colouring underscores the uneasy coexistence of the sacred and the profane, highlighting how religious institutions consecrate bodies as objects of veneration while simultaneously regulating and repressing desire. I used a Konica AUTOREFLEX T4 35mm Film SLR Manual camera throughout the series. Click on each thumbnail to get a larger image with more details as well as even more photo outtakes.
