Spinoza wrote that “no one has yet determined what the body can do”. Since at least the mid-twentieth century, ontology has linked this indeterminacy to the body’s constant becoming. The becoming of bacteria and archaea into reproducing living cells. The random ‘thickening’ of chaos into matter, into life. In an age of environmental collapse, social upheaval and rapid technological change, my work investigates what it is to be a body in the world, what are the forces acting on it, and what can a body hope to do?
Through continual combinations and manipulations of mediums, I explore the embeddedness of the body in the world; the enmeshed becoming of body and world through perpetual relatedness. At the same time, the limits of materials serve as a reminder of the propensity of human social, historical, cultural and material assemblages to solidify and resist change. But if the body is a guide, then I hope my work also suggests the possibility of alternative futures. Futures based on body’s abundant possibilities, diverse manifestations, potentials and desires for relating. The body’s innate desire to expand the possibilities for life.
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