15/04/2024
Costume design Katarzyna Konieczka
Photography marcintwardowski.com
Model Luxuria Astaroth
Make-up and hair Aleksandra Foka Przyłuska
Some time ago I came across some documentaries about necrophiles. A doctor loved his wife so much that he never buried her. He expertly mummified her dead body, meticulously took care of it and even slept with it. Romantic, isn’t it? It is not a black-and-white kind of situation, one may not judge and condemn him straightaway. Nobody knew what he actually felt and nobody admired him for the kind of life he chose and for how desperately he fought for his wife. Platonic love used to be described in poems and sonnets. It was idealized, unfulfilled, the most dramatic kind of love. It is like falling in love with somebody who is already dead. The body gets colder and colder, until it becomes stone-cold. The colder it gets, the more distant it becomes. Then a swirl of thoughts begins. “We can’t be together anymore...” The skin begins to become slimy, starts to stink. The physical body is slipping away and then the real test for love begins. Loving becomes even more difficult when the body becomes physically repulsive. On the other hand, nursing of a dead body, a painstaking work, moves me. I use a fabric and a technique of its processing, which disintegrates it; however, I still find strength to continue laborious sewing. Once I read about a murderer who made clothes, accessories and other knick-knacks of human skin. When the police entered his house they saw loads of his trophies, including even lampshades, belts and clothing. The guy later served as an inspiration for films such as e.g. “The silence of the lambs”. This kind of a precise work and continuous visualising of such process provoked me to create clothes which would look as if they were made of human skin. Pieces of flesh colour fabric are precisely sewn together, producing multiple cracks at the seams and revealing the redness underneath. Sometimes the cracks take on organic shapes, they look like a blood circulation system. The technique that I am using is a result of many experiments. If a dress is long, I leave more of a red colour at the bottom, thus making it look like a living organism. Torture bridles were the first designs of this collection. They constitute a merging of an orthodontic brace and an instrument of torture. It is difficult to talk in them and stay in them. They are a kind of face fetters. They represent women’s aspirations for submissiveness and express a fascination for masochism, both physical and mental, which is clearly visible especially in this particular collection. Sometimes, as a result of very complicated relations with another human being a well-thought-out, symmetrical and systematic concept is created which looks like a machine created to inflict pain. It is beautiful and silent and you may only stand it if you enter the phase of an increased adrenaline level. It is like a graph presenting a dialogue between two people. At first, there is a gentle, soothing touch, accompanied by a whisper which does not get louder at any moment. Suddenly, the caress turns into a strike only to go back into the phase of building up the sense of security. Inflicting mental pain in different phases-games...... Is it the picture of a soul?
"Nekromantik" collection
All masks and machines are handmade by me. I make them of metal and plastic materials.
Costume design and style Katarzyna Konieczka
Photography Marcin Twardowski
Make-up and hair Aleksandra Foka Przyłuska
Model Luluka/ SPP
Photographer's assistant Dariusz Szatkowski
