Molly Walsh is a Florida-based artist who combines the human body with themes of nature to explore the notion of decay and the reclamation that happens to the body after death. Other themes that she explores can be described as broader, like sexuality and memory. Her current project is the documentation of tattoos that reveal the body as a living canvas shaped by personal narrative.
Walsh uses 35mm, medium, and large format film, along with digital photography, within her practice. While she began working digitally, she has been drawn to film for its tonal depth and raw grain that give an authenticity and impermanence to her images themselves. The process of loading, developing, and enlarging film adds a physicality that she has fallen in love with. This strengthens her interest in the materiality that the human body holds. Her documentation of tattoos emphasizes the merging of permanence and identity, showing how the body can hold a web of memories and reveal one's personality with just their skin.
Through her work, Walsh invites viewers to look at the body not as a fixed subject but as something that is constantly changing and tethered to the natural world. She highlights the tension between permanence and impermanence through her subject matter and process. Her work expresses a continuing exploration of transformation that encourages viewers to engage with both the loveliness and inevitability of change.