Alex Allwood

Canto XXIX is derived from the tenth bolgia in the eighth layer of hell in Dante’s Divine Comedy, Inferno. Where the inhabitants were doomed to suffer various afflictions, in the pit of disease. The putrid place describes humans covered head to toe, rife with disease that causes a deterioration of the body and soul. Highlighting the horrors of the human form by decaying and destroying it.

Inspired by this concept and the film, ‘The Fly’(1986), which shows the process of a human slowly transforming into a creature of sorts.

Canto XXIX, The Collection, highlights the metamorphosis of a body from the initial decay to the hatching of a new form. Symbolising one's own disgust with their own body and purposefully restricting those parts of the human form. Using distorting silhouettes, nude palettes and textures to render the viewer and the wearer confined in a state of unease.