Left like a Skeleton

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Artist: Katie Taylor

Title: Left like a Skeleton

Attribution: Left like a Skeleton, 2024 - Katie Taylor

Year: 2024

Materials: Nettle cordage, photograph, wooden box

Dimensions: 1 meter x 1 meter

Image Statement: During decomposition, soil becomes nutrient rich. This soil feeds plant material that grows taller than others, becoming observers of these deaths, quietly acknowledging and absorbing the individual, taking them into themselves. Each year they die back, to feed the soil again for the next generation of plants creating a cycle of presence at that site. Nettles have been key within forensic investigation and archaeological evidence shows nettles used in prehistory to make fabrics. Nettles are prevalent in nature, growing well in high nitrogen soils. Nettles are known by everyone but are almost always avoided because of their sting. This has powerful correlations with attitudes to outsiders, homelessness and unidentified death. Using nettles from the sites of unidentified deaths I halt the nettle from its natural cycle of growth and decay to investigate an individuality, Whilst making each there was a rhythm, like a heartbeat resulting in a commemorative relic.