Them, Danny Treacy (Manchester, 1975-): Stitching Selflessness

Abstract

Danny Treacy’s photographic series, Them (2002-), is made up of large-size self-portraits of the artist camouflaged in second-hand costumes stitched out of fragments of found clothes. The series is a commemorative work paying a tribute to outcasts and socially invisible people. It fosters a sense of uncanniness since the faceless figures resemble perverts, monsters or carnivalesque avatars. The resurfacing of the repressed Other is unsettling and brings forth an archetypal wilderness. The work relies on various artistic processes that this paper investigates: collection and recycling, performative embodiment and identification, exposure and exhibition. Central to this work are the notions of abjection, precariousness, social invisibility and shared vulnerability. Them is analysed in the light of social sciences (anthropology, sociology, psychoanalysis and philosophy) as well as contemporary art history. The work and its process are construed as an attempt at resisting fragmentation and ressurecting the abjected.

Keywords

• abjection
• social invisibility
• vulnerability
• monster
• carnival
• performance