My thesis work examines how the filters that we look through to see the world — a window, a mirror, a computer screen, the human eye— impact our perceptions of the world and of ourselves as viewers and occupants of it. The exhibition features a body of work titled Parasomatic. With a focus on dissolving false dichotomies that narrow the scope of human consciousness, I engage various self-imaging techniques to expand on conceptions of what might be considered part of the body. The show comprises iterative performances which situate the human corporeal form as an infrastructure for navigating complex relationships and theories. In these performances, I use my body to explore the mechanics and phenomena of light, and reflexively account for energetic impact on the body and perception.
Parasomatic is a word I came up with. It is a mode of embodiment which moves the subject beyond the immediacy of the physical, redefining the self as both its living body and its energetic exchanges. Applied to the reflexive self, parasomatism is an abnormalization, reference, expansion, and dissolution of the body as a fixed interiority. It is the body as a locality both inside of and beyond itself. This work does not address fantasies of an altered physical presence in the immediate sense, but reveals physical presence to be tenuous, nervous, and circumstantial. Parasomatism refers to a physical and energetic state which the body occupies in relation to its conditions, describing the body itself as well as the conditions that materialize the body.
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