ARTIST: ZAHRA HOCCOM

compressed kiss of equality — Title: *Compressed Kiss of Equality*

Zahra Hoccom is a Bristol-based artist and Drawing (BA) graduate from Falmouth University. Using print, drawing, and photography as mediums to illustrate her ideas; her work focuses on issues stigmatised in Western culture. Most recently these include human existentialism into life’s finitude: racism, sexism, and homophobia. Zahra encompasses mark-making without spontaneity, instead she uses intricacy. Her work attempts to push the boundaries of drawing and how contemporary drawing can be made.

Context is deeply important to my practice and for the past two years, I have researched and experimented to see if the essence of death can be visually portrayed. Heidegger’s ideology surrounding finitude became a catalyst towards this creative journey. Further research leads me to the realisation that often-western orientated societies have difficulty dealing with death. My practice has led me to develop mark-making, double exposure photography & photoetching. My most recent body of work is titled The Veil Series.

Presenting the Veil series

UK-based artist Zahra Hoccom presents ‘The Veil Series’, which began as an exploration into whether death can be authentically represented. The project evolved to encompass some of the multifaceted symbolisms a veil holds. The series has now taken its own symbolism, where the veil is representative of the need for equality. A significant part of the work aims to explore death and equality within religion, gender and sexuality. By photographing in double exposures whilst the figure is veiled. The photographer creates a delicate intimacy capturing the beauty of the figure even when the face is warped; from a Queer feminist perspective. The models being veiled are representative of not encompassing our individual identities and the pain and that can cause.

When exploring the concept of absence and finitude I realised that the distortion of the face in portraiture visually represented absence. Using the medium of photography, I distorted my subjects by combining double exposure and having my models wear a Veil. This added another layer of conceptual meaning to my work, as the Veil has a multi-faceted symbolism; religiously and politically within historical and current cultures. Highlighting cultural issues, such as feminism and European racism towards the Veil and the banning of the Burqa, within countries like France and Switzerland. This technique means that the subject does not seem to be fully present, which plays to the dichotomy within absence and presence. Following the use of photographs as a starting point, I felt it would be appropriate to push the process further into photoetching, which enabled the digital process to be recycled into a handmade process. Most importantly to this series of work I want to highlight the need for equality within religion, gender, sexuality and class.