The Disobedient Body
"There, I am at the border of my condition as a living being. My body extricates itself, as being alive, from that border… nothing remains in me and my entire body falls beyond the limit – cadere, cadaver."
— Julia Kristeva, 1982
The Disobedient Body explores the intersection of the body and self through the lens of skin. By manipulating the surfaces of my self-portrait images and utilizing skin-like materials such as latex and kombucha, I present bodily objects that challenge our understanding of the body when its primary barrier, the skin, changes. How does skin shape our perception of a healthy body and our concept of self? What happens when this delicate layer is damaged?
Drawing from my personal experiences with infection and injury, I investigate how skin acts as a boundary for self-perception. When this boundary is breached, it creates a moment of abjection. By re-examining my relationship with my body, I peel away layers to scrutinize the body from the outside. The body transitions from being part of a living entity to an object of analysis, a problem to be examined, controlled, and fixed. This series illustrates the disjunction between subjective inner experiences and objective analysis, incorporating personal narratives and medical texts to highlight the confusion of the abject body as it fluctuates between belonging and not belonging to me.
As we age, become sick, or sustain injuries, the reality of our fragility and mortality becomes evident—the abject reality we often deny until it is unavoidable. What if we need to relearn that our body will change, and that this is a natural part of being mortal? What if this acceptance and relearning are the first steps towards embracing our mortality?
I invite you to engage with these works and reflect on your discomfort. How do you feel about your skin changing? What makes you feel uneasy? Through this exploration, I aim to provoke a deeper understanding and acceptance of our ever-changing bodies.
This is an ongoing project in relation to my research.
Materials:
Polaroid Emulsion, Liquid Latex, Kombucha, Acrylic Plates, Microscope Slides, Petri Dishes, Nails
