Skin Deep

SKIN DEEP

SOLO EXHIBITION @ Hot Vine Studios, Redfern

by Isabella Melody Moore

16-28 APRIL 2025

This project explores my relationship with my mother, Manola. I was concerned about the lack of vulnerability between us, and despite numerous attempts to bridge this emotional distance, any connection we formed was fleeting.

In 2017, I turned the camera on her and began to collect photographs, archiving moments without a clear destination. As this project emerged, it wasn’t until 7 years later, when I taught my mother how to use the camera in that I was drawn into focus. One night, by mirroring each other's poses and expressions, we found new territory and I felt the walls between us melt away.

When my mother travelled to Lima, she gave me her keys to water her plants and I went to her house where I dressed in her clothes. By wearing my mother's favourite clothing from the 1980s and 90s, I created a temporal bridge to the past in order to move forward into the present.

When she returned, she told me she did not want to be photographed anymore because she did not like to see photos of herself. Through this new vulnerability, we had grown closer and I still hoped for more connection, so I worked to find a way around this new barrier.

Working with prosthetics I bend time to embody my mother's skin and image, blurring the lines between our identities and asking: who is who?

My background in photojournalism informs my artistic practice, bringing a documentary perspective to a personal narrative exploration.