If Man Was Merely an Armature: Freakshow Sculptures by Simon Birch

These captivating Freakshow installations by UK-born, Hong-Kong-based artist, Simon Birch are made with humans and household products. Birch, however, has inverted the ordinary sculpting process by introducing a mutation. Rather than use aluminum foil and wire for an armature, he uses a person. He then covers the man or woman with wool, balloons, stockings and incense.

I find it fascinating how the body can be so transformed. Here’s Birch answering an interviewer’s prompt to describe what he does:

I make art with paint and sometimes with film and steel and whatever else time and resources allow. What I do is the thing that stops me killing myself.

OK, so he comes off sounding a tad dramatic. Better than a tad nonplussed. I wonder what stops him killing other people? Because in thes next photo, he’s basically covering a woman with aromatic kindling…

All homicide jokes aside, this work is amazing. Click through to see more of Simon Birch’s Freakshow. At the very end, I’ve also included a few photos for the skeptics who don’t think there’s real people under there…

Oh, and in case you didn’t think there were real people under there…please meet Gordian and Tweaker.