By the early 1980s, the feminist, civil rights, and gay rights movements had drawn attention to the ways that bodies are represented. For many artists, the body became a critical as well as a vexed point of focus. Some imbued their work with a sense of action, drawing on experimental performance and dance practices. Others made use of images from media and advertising or utilized easily available products. This gallery includes many works in which the body merges with inanimate objects, forming a psychologically charged hybrid symbolic of a pervasive consumer culture.
Organized by Roxana Marcoci, The David Dechman Senior Curator, Department of Photography and Paulina Pobocha, Associate Curator, with Lydia Mullin, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Painting and Sculpture, and Giampaolo Bianconi, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Media and Performance.
