bODY lANGUAGE

 tHE CONCEPT OF GENDER IN Western philosophy and pedagogy has, over recent decades, reached a point of cultural understanding that sees it increasingly liberated from the restraints of biological sex. However, the body is a site in Western art that is historically riddled with symbolism pertaining to a specifically binary model of gender.

How can one present trans/non-binary bodies to an audience that leans upon a history of binary gender representation, and achieve a readability that promotes gender-queer discourse? How can arts practices push up against spectacularity and towards autonomy? It is in the space between embodiment and legibility that Body Language is situated.

As a body of work, body language investigates the materiality and theory of the body’s potential, as an artistic medium and a site of creation, to critique and deflect the restraints of binary corporeal symbolism. Body language is an autobiographical work that ultimately aligns the visual presence and reception of the body with the expanded philosophical and phenomenological concept of gender.

stills from building/rebuilding, kudos gallery, 2020. images: paolo arimado