Necrophobia
34.5” x 40.375” x 4.5”
Artist’s Childhood Dress, Cabinet Window from Ward Warehouse Demolition, Scavenged Wood, Found and Collected Florae, Insects, Teeth, Bones, Needles, Nests & Fauna.
Scavenged local flora, Arthropods (insects, arachnids, and crustaceans) scavenged by artist, and donated by the Bishop Museum Entomology department.
The Artist’s childhood dress from the period of the loss of her mother.
Necrophobia
Necrophobia speaks on the impermanence of all things and the ever-changing nature of existence. After the loss of her mother at a young age, artist Nanci Amaka began noticing death all around her. It seemed the whole world was full of dead or dying things. At first filled with fear at the inevitability of it all; the artist later moved to feeling intrigue and wonder at the beauty of decay and the poetry of loss.
To build the piece, Nanci Amaka began collecting ‘dead’ things around her; an empty birds nest on a forest path, a dead butterfly under a bush, a bee carcass in her kitchen window screen, a crab shell on the beach. Upon hearing that the Bishop Museum had a collection of insects sent to them by locals from areas throughout the Pacific, she reached out and was awarded a collection of arthropods that couldn’t be properly researched. Friends also began giving her dead things they found around them. This collection of scavenged bodies were them entombed in a glass case (built from scavenged wood and a window from the demolished Ward Warehouse where she performed Cleanse). Enshrined in the middle of the carcasses lays a childhood dress of the artist’s from the time period of her mother’s death.
The nature of the objects in the piece is that they continue to decay and turn to dust. The artist documents the piece over time, noting changes and eventually going in to replenish the dead flora and objects.
Corpse & Mirror – Instagram @corpseandmirror
The series of photographs is an investigation into the limits of fear. Decay and death although inevitable, elicit anxiety in many. Through photography, the horror is dulled and turned into curiosity. Every photograph is proof of a step taken despite the body’s reaction. She also invites friends to contribute to the album with photos of their own. The goal, always being to face challenges, to not look away, to stand one’s ground, and acknowledge mortality. By publishing the photographs online, the artist is leaving a mark of an accomplishment, a badge of sorts claiming one more victory over Necrophobia.