“In contrast to the body, embodiment is contextual, enmeshed within the specifics of place, time, physiology, and culture, which together compose enactment. Embodiment never coincides exactly with ‘the body,’ however that normalized concept is understood.” N. Katherine Hayles, How We Became Posthuman, p. 196.
Inspired by David Cronenberg’s classic films Videodrome and eXistenZ, and the writings of N. Katherine Hayles, The New Flesh explores a posthuman vision of embodiment. Who are we without our bodies? Can what some call the “soul” be neurochemically and electronically captured and uploaded onto a machine? What humanity remains when the body is fragmented and reduced to data and reconstituted in another form? Flesh is the starting point of the body, but posthuman embodiment also includes electromechanical augmentations and digital information. This new flesh isn’t purely flesh at all: it’s a hybrid of the natural and the artificial, the digital and the spiritual – a mode of cyborg existence that encompasses the human body and the flow of information that surrounds it.
Participating artist Phillip Birch, Claudia Hart, Auriea Harvey, Sophie Kahn
M. Charlene Stevens is the founder and editor-in-chief of Arcade Project zine and director of Arcade Project Curatorial. Originally from Los Angeles, she received her BA in Art History from UCLA, studied Photography and Art Education at California State University, Los Angeles, and Film and Photographic Studies at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands. She has curated solo exhibitions Dark Meat and Twisted Twins — XXY at Satellite Art Show.
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council .