In an age dominated by digital technology, The Body Electric explores themes of the real and virtual, the organic and artificial, moving from the physical world to the screen and back again. Today, computer and phone screens are fast becoming the primary places of encountering new information, effectively blurring the boundary between three-dimensional space and the two-dimensional image. The exhibition presents work by an international and intergenerational group of artists who examine ways that photographic, televisual, and digital media change our perceptions of the human body and everyday life.
With pieces ranging from the 1960s to today, The Body Electric brings together artists such as Trisha Baga, Nam June Paik, and Shigeko Kubota, whose work across performance, sculpture, and moving image conflates the physical world and its life on screen. For some artists, including Martine Syms, Andrea Crespo, and Lynn Hershman Leeson, the lens of the camera creates a space to rethink the representation of sociopolitical identities and to question the structures that govern our understanding of race, gender, and sexuality. For others, such as Mark Leckey, Pierre Huyghe, and Bruce Nauman, technology offers opportunities to consider the malleable, fragmented, and impossible body.
Charting the embrace and manipulation of technology across varying generations, The Body Electric examines how the screen has increasingly shifted ways that we picture ourselves and understand our place in the world.
Contains mature content.
Artists in the Exhibition
Laurie Anderson, Ed Atkins, Trisha Baga, Dara Birnbaum, Zach Blas, James Byrne, Peter Campus, Petra Cortright, Andrea Crespo, Zackary Drucker, Rhys Ernst, VALIE EXPORT, Simone Forti, Robert Gober, Aneta Grzeszykowska, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Pierre Huyghe, Juliana Huxtable, Sanja Iveković, Joan Jonas, Josh Kline, Shigeko Kubota, Carolyn Lazard, Candice Lin & Patrick Staff, Sidsel Meineche Hansen, Helen Marten, Ana Mendieta, Charlotte Moorman, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Bruce Nauman, Nam June Paik, Letícia Parente, Sondra Perry, Howardena Pindell, Ulrike Rosenbach, Cindy Sherman, Lorna Simpson, Marianna Simnett, Martine Syms, Ryan Trecartin, Amalia Ulman, Wolf Vostell, the Wooster Group, Anicka Yi