Bodyscapes

I don't remember where I first came across the work of Jessica Harrison, but have been intrigued with it for some time.  Her work pushes understandings about the body, the body's connection to materiality, and the body's relationship to space.    In a description of her philosophy behind her work she states:


"The things I make are about the body: the body in space, the space within the body and the space in-between the two.  The body is something we all share in one shape or form, the filter through which we all experience the world around us and the objects in front of us."  


I think it also points to the cyborgian relationship human beings have created with "things."  Our possessions or things come to be a part of who we are; a part of how we define ourselves.  Some of her work literally uses recognizable pieces of the human body to construct everyday objects.  In many ways it appears absurd, but is still recognizable as something utilitarian and normal.

Harrison further notes that her work is about experimenting with boundaries:


"I am exploring the significance of surfaces in our construction of knowledge through making and experimenting, playing on our instincts and assumptions built from an historical optical hierarchy and propensity to touch what catches our attention. Our surfaces do not just act as boundaries between our inside and outside, between ‘us’ and ‘that’, but play the most vital role in our perceptions of the world around us.  The objects I make attempt to unpack these perceptions and interrupt these interfaces to bring our assumptions to the surface."


Her objects serve as a point of rupture, where we question what we are seeing and feel discomfort from the disruption of normalized boundaries related to the body, to death, and to the ordinary.  If only I still owned my dollhouse from when I was a child.....