June 23 – June 27, 2021
2021년 6월 23일 – 6월 27일
L Gallery – B Gallery, CICA Museum
My interests as an artist are anchored in exploring the possibilities of the queer body when fused with technology and body modification. For example, what can a body mean if we have the power to physically change the body and modify the perception of it through filters and editing software? My desire to create comes from a place of obsession and a desire for control over my own body. Not only control of my own physical anatomy, but the expectations and perceptions of my body and identity. I also reflect on social media/pop culture’s influence on self perception, beauty, and gender. How does pop culture distort our perception,presentation, and instrumentation of self?
My body often plays an important role in the work, organizing and guiding the viewer’s interactions with the environment. I establish an authoritative relationship with the viewer,creating a palpable insider/outsider dynamic that mimics and satirizes societal standards of beauty as well my own experiences of exclusion as a queer individual. Flesh-covered mirrors, prosthetics, beauty products, and examination tables are stitched together with augmented reality face filters, virtual reality performance, and heavily edited images to blur the boundaries between our physical and digital presence.
These components create a multi-sensory experience
where viewers become specimens and are encouraged to interact, smell, and even ingest elements of the work.
This creates a visceral and disorienting experience for the viewer, prompting them to question the perception of their own body and blur their distinction between the digital and the physical.
Reid Arowood is a queer artist working and living in Knoxville, Tennessee. Their interests as an artist are anchored in exploring the possibilities of the queer body when fused with technology and body modification. For example, what can a body mean if we have the power to physically change the body and modify the perception of it through filters and editing software? Reid holds a BFA from the University of Tennessee has been a resident of the School of Visual Art’s Bio Art program in New York City, which culminated to the exhibition “Biotransmutations”.
Reid Arowood, “Hollywood Lift Filter”(2019)