British artist, Emma Fay, has created a series of artworks that explore thoughts and mindsets using the body as a living canvas. The portraits are an artistic expression of the metaphorical terms that describe the mind.

The symbols portrayed in the artworks have been chosen for their personal interpretations and direct references. There are double meanings present throughout many of the works with a focus on iconic religious and culturally significant symbols; for example, the Dove signifies Euneirophrenia, a peaceful state of mind after sleeping, composed in direct juxtaposition to the Snake as Malneirophrenia, a foul mood resulting from a nightmare and its venomous qualities.

The artworks are photographed in a uniformed pose with a neutral expression which gives a plain view of the face. The removal of the models’ personality and character offers a potential mirror of the mind for the viewer. The combining of portraiture and illusion, where the figure is hidden or distorted within the artwork, prompts the viewer to take a second look and reflect on a self-orientated society.

Body art by Emma Fay. Photography by Jonathan Macauley.

More info: emma-fay.co.uk

The Box

Body Artist Emma Fay
Photographer Jonathan Macauley
with model Charlotte Mahdoodi

“Don’t think outside the box. Think like there is no box.” ~ Ziad K. Abdelnour

Open Mind

Body Artist Emma Fay
Photographer Jonathan Macauley
with model Charlotte Parker

“Minds are like Parachutes, they only function when open.” ~ Thomas Dewar

Euneirophrenia

Body Artist Emma Fay
Photographer Jonathan Macauley
with model Jenny Hibberd

A good state of mind after sleeping.

“…I value that little phrase “I don’t know” so highly. It’s small, but it flies on mighty wings. It expands our lives to include the spaces within us as well as those outer expanses in which our tiny Earth hangs suspended.” ~ Wislawa Szymborska

Malneirophrenia

Body Artist Emma Fay
Photographer Jonathan Macauley
with model Charlotte Parker

A foul mood resulting from a bad night’s sleep or a nightmare.

Constructive

Body Artist Emma Fay
Photographer Jonathan Macauley
with model Harry Head

“Eyes are the windows to the soul.” ~ William Shakespeare

Destructive

Body Artist Emma Fay
Photographer Jonathan Macauley
with model Harry Head

“The endless cycles.” ~ Alan Watts

Ego

Body Artist Emma Fay
Photographer Jonathan Macauley
with model Charlotte Parker

“Inner purpose emerges as the outer person is lost, the shell of the ego breaks.” ~ Eckhart Tolle

The Unknown Mind

Body Artist Emma Fay
Photographer Jonathan Macauley
with model Krissy Smith

“The Mind is like an iceberg, it floats with one-seventh of its bulk above water.” ~ Sigmund Freud

Imagination

Body Artist Emma Fay
Photographer Jonathan Macauley
with model Jenny Hibberd

“Imagination is the highest kite one can fly” ~ Lauren Bacall

Observe

Body Artist Emma Fay
Photographer Jonathan Macauley
with model Charlotte Mahdoodi

“The word ‘listen’ contains the same letters as the word ‘silent’.” ~ Alfred Brendel

Glass Half

Body Artist Emma Fay
Photographer Jonathan Macauley
with model Charlotte Parker

“Life is short, and it is sinful to waste one’s time. They say I’m active. But being active is still wasting one’s time, if in doing one loses oneself. Today is a resting time, and my heart goes off in search of itself. If an anguish still clutches me, it’s when I feel this impalpable moment slip through my fingers like quicksilver… At the moment, my whole kingdom is of this world. This sun and these shadows, this warmth and this cold rising from the depths of the air: why wonder if something is dying or if men suffer, since everything is written on this window where the sun sheds its plenty as a greeting to my pity? I can say and in a moment I shall say that what counts is to be human and simple. No, what counts is to be true, and then everything fits in, humanity and simplicity. When am I truer than when I am the world? My cup brims over before I have time to desire. Eternity is there and I was hoping for it. What I wish for now is no longer happiness but simply awareness.” ~ Albert Camus

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Polarities

Body Artist Emma Fay
Photographer Jonathan Macauley
with model Lisa Vasilev

“My face would go on but behind it was this black hole… I was like a computer, programmed and functioning… It’s like having two heads, one so positive, one so negative but that second one, it just keeps beating the other” ~ Lisa on her own post natal depression.

Burn

Body Artist Emma Fay
Photographer Jonathan Macauley
with model Charlotte Parker

“We must embrace pain and burn it as fuel for our journey” ~ Kenji Miyazawa

Cloud Walker

Body Artist Emma Fay
Photographer Jonathan Macauley
with model Krissy Smith

“Know all things to be like this: A mirage, a cloud castle, a dream, an apparition, without essence, but with qualities that can be seen. Know all things to be like this: As the moon in a bright sky, in some clear lake reflected, through to that lake the moon has never moved. Know all things to be like this: As an echo that derives from music, sounds and weeping. Yet in that echo has no melody. Know all things to be like this: As a magician makes illusions of horses, oxen, carts and other things, nothing is as it appears.” ~ Buddha

Bend the Rules

Body Artist Emma Fay
Photographer Jonathan Macauley
with model Helen Claire

“Everyone plays the game of life, but not everyone follows the rules.” ~ Anon

Games

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