Fragile Flesh
Loading...
Authors
Stumpf, Ingrid
Issue Date
5/1/2025
Type
Thesis
Language
en_US
Keywords
Ceramic , Fiber , Leather , Installation , Art , Anatomy , Biology , Wool , Wax , Tiles , Textiles
Alternative Title
Abstract
Fragile Flesh explores the body, and more specifically a dissected view of flesh and bodily anatomy as a lens through which we can begin to view the complexity of our existence as a beautiful yet uncanny collection of organic systems that we inhabit. Moving throughout the world, developing personalities, identities, and experiences. Fragile Flesh looks at the unique structures of the biological forms that we are made up of in order the rewild the body, the flesh. Imagining it not as an identifiable human; made up of concrete parts like arms, legs, hands, a face, etc., but one that strips us down to our basic animality and biology. Making us uncanny, fascinating, and unknown once again. In the thesis exhibition, Fragile Flesh, human biology is taken and blended with aspects of the natural world to more easily understand the parallels that we share between ourselves, and other organisms. The ways in which our structures may be similar, our behaviors, and our place within the natural order. Through historical and contemporary examples as well as personal artwork references Fragile Flesh demonstrates how art can be a tool to grapple with our biological reality. The fragility and beauty of the flesh that we inhabit, the complexities contained within our skin, and our interconnectedness with the natural world. Visualized through a material-based practice that explores the potential of ceramic, fiber, and other natural mediums.
Description
Through ceramics, leather, wool, fur, paper, wax, and other found objects, this exhibition questions internal and external structures of the flesh, the ways it can be depicted in both the abstract and the realistic, and the contexts both personal and universal that inform our own maintenance and upkeep. Starting from the cellular, to organs, and organ systems, Fragile Flesh exists in part, as a series of vignettes, or explorations of my own personal fascinations and observations of the world and the people around me. This show is an investigation the ways I can depict the biological forms we are made up of, as well as the spaces where we are most aware of our flesh. Be it the utilitarian sterility of a bathroom or the comforts of a family dining room. We move throughout the world thanks to these bodies we have, fueled by the beating of our hearts, the pumping of our blood, firing of neurons, or the shedding of skin. Fragile Flesh spans the gap between my personal motivations and interests in the interconnectedness of art and biological science, as well as highlighting the significance of the process and materials to the work's conceptual relativity. Structured around themes of patten, beauty, the abject, sexuality, as well as interior and utilitarian spaces under the larger context of body art and early feminism.