Sculptor Jessica Harrison examines the relationship between interior and exterior spaces of the body. At first sight her work ‘Handheld’ is slightly disturbing. It’s a collection of sculptures that seem to be made out of real, fleshy skin. Actually the sculptures are made using casts of the palms and backs of the artist’s hands. Ambiguous in scale and origin, the objects appear simultaneously part of the body but also rejected by it and you can’t really figure out, if they belong to the body or not. Blurring these boundaries and limits of the body Harrison provokes questions about the shape of the self in relation to both the visual and the tactile body. Harrison states: ‘it is not skin that outlines the interior of the body, but touch, something that is not necessarily aligned with the visible skin.’ Now she lives and works in Edinburgh, Scotland.

All images © Jessica Harrison