VERHEXEN

VERHEXEN uses staged reenactments, portraits, and still lifes inspired by the Salem witch trials to examine how suspicion and accusation are constructed and circulated.

Drawing on archival records from the 1692 Salem witch trials, VERHEXEN uses staged reenactments, portraiture and forensic still life to examine how suspicion and accusation gain force. Though rooted in seventeenth-century proceedings, the project resonates with contemporary cultures of scrutiny where social stigma continues to shape consensus. 

Images function as fragments within a constructed system of visual testimony, informing how legitimacy is assigned and withdrawn. Rather than illustrating historical events, the work explores how proof is assembled and acceptance takes hold.

A glass medicine bottle filled with dried botanicals is isolated and presented like evidence. An uneasy figure stands alone in a barren forest, and a bodily mark is shown in close-up, separated from context. Across the series, the same motifs reappear in different images and configurations.

VERHEXEN positions seeing as an act of judgment, where perception is negotiated between what is shown, what is suggested, and what cannot be verified.