Tonal - Olivia Malone

A constellation of freckles. Interlocked knees. A folded torso. The feminine rendered sculptural. Olivia Malone’s (b. 1982, American) Tonal is, at its core, a study of color. Married with her interest in the natural abstractions possible within the female form, the book is an embodied spectrum. Through fragmentation, Malone twists and turns the body into new shapes; a unique perspective transforming details of the figure into the unrecognizable. By the introduction of a myriad of textures, the project plays with light and material to create the desired tone. Not being defined or limited by skin tone, each photograph becomes hue specific. Whites, pinks, reds and browns are generated and assembled into a gradient of images, taking us from the absence of tone to the richly saturated and back again. Each image then stands alone as a sensorial study while also shaping the larger body collage. Whether submerged, contorted, or embraced, the language of the female body is redefined through distinct contours and imprints left behind.