Degree Show 2025
Eliza Bell-Ogilby
BA Art and Design
‘Human Parasite’ is a metafictional project using a fabricated dystopian novel as inspiration for a sensory, figurative sculpture featuring parasitic barnacle motifs alongside a contextualising illustration. The sculpture and illustration allude to the narrative and social commentary intended by the fictitious book, requesting inquisition and discussion from the audience.
The ‘Human Parasite’ sculpture presents a physical embodiment of the disease in the fictitious novel. Using approximately six hundred barnacles, the fragments of a figure playing host to the symbiotic, parasitic barnacles intend to evoke uncomfortable familiarity- a sensory experience of delicate, grotesque beauty.
The ‘Human Parasite: Illustration’ provides an important contextual framework for the sculptural piece, and the fictitious novel. There is a narrative to be revealed in the drawing, welcoming the audience to imagine their own fantastical stories in the context of the work.