Caitlin Hazell

About

Contact
caitlin.hazell@hotmail.co.uk
Instagram

Education:
2023-2024
Royal College Of Art, Sculpture
2014-2017
Kingston University: Fine Art BA (Hons) First class

The Kenneth Armitage Postgraduate Sculptor Prize 2024
Gilbert Bayes RCA Award 2024 grant recipient

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Medieval speculative fiction, existing somewhere between mockumentary, ethnographic study and reenactment, An Investigation into the Noseless Saint serves as commentary on the changing status of objects, artefacts and relics, utilising sculpture turned to prop and back again to work exhibited alongside the moving image.

No commentary or dialogue, rolls shot on a 35mm Lomokino camera, hand-processed, spaces stitched together; the ancient Neolithic caves in Përmet, Albania, a Shropshire rock formation steeped in superstitious folklore, the Medieval walls of Canterbury, and a back garden in Hackney.

The project spans the hysterical escalation of a group of sprout stick fighters witnessing the horrors of nose loss, to focus on a pilgrim leader inspired by the figure of a Noseless Saint, the subject of a canonisation after miraculously gaining a false metal nose. Hearing of this tale, the pilgrim leader is seen using objects to gather apparent power, eventually leading a pilgrimage for a pregnant couple to a shrine made up for the Noseless Saint, where peasants would visit to try and secure longevity of their own noses, and guarantee strong noses for their unborn children.

The Middle Ages saw recurring crises and anxieties around bodily integrity. These are mirrored in today’s social media physical appearance trends which often centre around dystopian bodily adaptations. The outcome, however, is not an allegory, but rather a playful meditation on the absurdity of real bodies, false bodies, real histories, false histories.

Within this body of work, artefacts such as a bronze finger dowsing stick, sterling silver noses, ceremonial breads, and foam sprout sticks gain questionable and often anachronistic meanings, serving as commentary on material tradition, souvenir, and ritual.