Corporeal Prison
Corporeal Prison has helped us process issues surrounding borders and boundaries through the experience of collective art making. We seven artists produced a single installation by combining mediums and techniques from our individual practices. This collaborative effort began with conversations about life as consumers, our relationships with US political and societal borders and the function of boundaries within these contexts. We used light and water to represent natural resources and bodies within contested environments enveloping the USA. Particular attention was paid to our self-regulating behaviors, as well as implicating ourselves with respect to the maintenance of present-day border structures. Who benefits from these borders? What keeps us from extending our empathy across boundaries drawn? How do psychological borders manifest within public spheres?
This installation relies on the architectural structures of the Diego Rivera Gallery - such as its rounded window and ceiling beams - to highlight this environment as a shelter for communal activities. Of particular interest is architecture’s function in compartmentalization and delineation of borders between different people. Personal borders, both tangible and intangible, can be a manifestation of efforts to protect oneself. A variety of ephemeral borders easily dissolved by shifting perspectives within the gallery reflects these concerns.
Materials: Wood, steel, glass, mirrors, linen, embroidered fabric, emergency blankets, water, sand, 5-channel soundscape.
Artists: Julia Fairbrother, Giuliana Funkhouser, Minjun Kim, Nivedita Madigubba, Amayi Nona Morales ,Bobby Singer, Shannon Sperling