The photograph is in conversation with Man Ray's Le Violon d'Ingres (1924) — the image in which Kiki of Montparnasse becomes a violin, her back marked with f-holes that, depending on how you read them, brand her, silence her, or turn her into something to be played. A century later, I wear those marks as temporary tattoos. They wash off.

I am working with the photograph as a talisman — an image to capture an internal experience so that I might see it more clearly. In this case, the painful memories of a broken relationship. Alongside the f-holes sits a second form: a spreadsheet — a record of the mental load carried and agreements made, kept, and broken.

The piece pairs self-portraiture with ritual, the canonical image with a domestic ledger.

Photographer: Tyler Hubby | Stylist: Bettina Hubby