2023
Mortuary embalming table, acrylic resin, enamel, rose dettol cavity fluid
Presented at Sandberg Instituut
Bliss Point (St. Gabriel’s Morgue) is an installation consisting of a larger-than-human-scale chocolate easter bunny positioned on a mortuary embalming table, with accompanying sculptures and two dimensional works. Reflecting on the necropolitical policy that determines who is considered deserving of care, and thereby who is deserving of life, the character of the chocolate rabbit becomes an uncanny stand-in for the human form and emblematic of those considered disposable.
The title of the work comes from St. Gabriel, a small town in Louisiana randomly selected by FEMA to “host” the morgue dedicated to identifying the victims of Hurricane Katrina. The rural town of 6,000 residents was consumed by the arrival of 25,000 dead bodies overnight, forever transforming the town’s identity.