The Amorphous Body: Objects of Fascination, Objects of Disgust

Description

Our bodily remnants, such as fluids, shed hair, and other refuse, confront the viewer with abjection – what has been physically or psychologically been cast off. The abject reminds us of what we try to forget – our filth, our mortality, the inevitability of the body's decay. Elements of the uncanny are also included in the abject. In Western culture, objects and shapes that elicit these feelings of unease are fairly universal. We have an instinctual, visceral reaction to these forms due to millennia of accumulated cultural knowledge. Even when highly abstracted, visual and tactile features that reference biological suffering such as holes, tumors, and other protrusions provide an immediate psychological connection to physical suffering and the emotions that these symptoms evoke. In my work, I investigate abstracting and transforming elements of the abject through the juxtaposition of objects and materials that have vastly different sociocultural connotations – gemstones and fingernails, precious metals and pubic hair. I have no interest in making work that's straightforwardly attractive or grotesque. My work confuses these emotional binaries between seduction and repulsion through both visual qualities and material tactility – how the piece warms with body heat, causes static cling, or leaves marks on the skin – and the way in which it impacts the wearer.