Body at L’INCONNUE

Artists: Alex Morrison, Dala Nasser, Hanna Hur, Julie Bena, Kent Merriman Jr., Melanie Ebenhoch, Naoki Sutter-Shudo, Susan Cianciolo, Van Hanos, Victoria Colmegna, Paul Mpagi Sepuya

Exhibition title: Body

Curated by: Domenico de Chirico

Venue: L’INCONNUE, Montreal, Canada

Date: December 14, 2018 – January 26, 2019

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artists and L’INCONNUE, Montreal

To bare oneself means to remain exposed as an image, to bring to the surface of the body every arcane depth, because “the world is composed exactly by and only by surfaces on top of surfaces.” The word “body” refers to every being in space that can be detected through the senses. An exhibit aiming to focus on the exploration of the body and its representations must look not only at the human body as an organic whole, the “physical body”, but also at its more purely materialistic components, as in a dissection. It’s in this space brimming with such vision that bodies manifest themselves in different, disjointed layers. Every bodily part acts as if it’s the protagonist and some recall the others through the display of organic elements. The sentient body, the one we inter-subjectively recognize as an alter ego, finds in love the recognition of its existence through nudity. The complexity of a hand that has in itself intellect, willfulness, dynamism, aesthetics, touch is one of the ways the sentient body discloses itself. It’s body that becomes matter and matter that becomes flesh. The phenomenon, the object that cannot be objectified, manifests itself in the shape it reveals, in a constant struggle between taking up space from the viewer and directing its roughness to the viewer, who’s thankfully both using it and admiring it. The disjointed body, on the edge between a laceration of the flesh and a volcanic explosion, lives where fragmentation flirts with both blood and rubble. Such a body seems then to dictate the rhythm of a dance, dancing itself in turn and creating new steps, taking forms that recall the different ways of being in the world.

Domenico de Chirico, 2018

Body, 2018, exhibition view, L’INCONNUE, Montreal

Alex Morrison, plan for a model of a new work (the social life of objects), 2018, Oil and graphite on canvas, 18 x 22 inches

Dala Nasser, I Have No Shame, 2015, Dirt collected from studio foor, liquid latex, charcoal, latex sheet, 100 x 100cm

Hanna Hur, endless spring viii, 2018, Watercolor, china marker and color pencil on linen, 30 x 40 inches

Hanna Hur, desert trance ii, 2015, Color pencil on silk, 30 x 40 inches

Julie Béna, 2fingers, 2017, Ceramic, 19 x 6 x 3cm

Kent Merriman Jr., Untitled, 2018, Oil, acrylic mannequin fragment, grommet on canvas, 56 x 42 inches

Melanie Ebenhoch, Interlude with Sunrise, 2017, Oil on aqua-resin, 110 x 90cm

Melanie Ebenhoch, Palazzo, 2017, Glazed Ceramics, 43 x 38 x 9cm

Naoki Sutter-Shudo, Untitled (Crew), 2016, Wood, enamel, printed matter, fabric, pearls, faux coral, 21 x 36.2 x 39.4cm

Susan Cianciolo, Lilac, 2018, Collage, marker, watercolor, pen on magazine page, 37.94 × 27.78 × 3.81 cm (framed)

Van Hanos, New Hand, 2017, Oil on linen, 61 x 50.8 cm

Victoria Colmegna, Broken Ego; #27. Team Work: Can the twins prove they are not babies anymore?; #52. White Lies: Will Bonny despise Reece when she finds out the truth?; #22. Out of place: Is there room in Sweet Valley for an outsider?; #8. First Place: Will Sarah risk everything for a horse?; #94. Super Chiller, The Carnival Ghost: Will Alex make it out alive?, 2017, Aluminum, galvanized steel, tempered glass, lock, keys; pastel on velvet; graphite, pen, and marker on paper; book jacket 29 1/2 x 40 1/2 x 2 inches (74.93 x 102.87 x 5.08 cm), Courtesy of the artist and Paul Soto, Los Angeles

Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Untitled, 2018, Color Laserprint Collage on Strathmore Bristol, 18 x 14 inches