Fragmented, bionic, even monstrous bodies… This is a witty parade offered by Maif Social Club under a disco ball in the shape of a basketball, signed by Laurent Perbos (Basketball disco ball). In a solemn, but also discreetly political exhibition, representations of the body go beyond formatted aesthetic canons. They go even under the skin, on the surface of muscles, meat and organs.
Touch, caress and lift the sides
In this small inclusive carnival, we will remember three pieces. First of all Anatomia Roxane Andrés who opens “Let’s form a body”. The designer is interested in the upgraded body, transplants, prostheses and implants. Using artificial intelligence, she drew a skinned woman, a woman, which is unusual – most anatomical models are male. She then had this model handwoven into a pop and colorful tapestry. The work is sensual as you can touch it, caress it and even lift up parts to see what’s underneath.
Further along the route, we come across a large format alioscopy (relief image) of a head. And here, on this face, we can see the platysma and the masticatory muscles, the skull and the eyeballs. But the visitor, standing still, stands right in front of the photo, blocking the view. Somewhat pointless, it enters our field of vision. This nosy unkind person is part of the job curious and human II by Elisabeth Daynès, a hyper-realistic sculpture of a man looking into a 7-million-year-old relief photograph of Toumaï, the elder of humanity. Paleoartist for natural history museums, Elisabeth Daynès questions aesthetic standards over time with this personal work. Can we consider a 7 million year old woman beautiful? Who decides what is beautiful?
Scary anatomical illustrations
Certainly not Daisy Collingridge, a British artist with 53,200 followers on Instagram. She will never force anyone to like her works, aware of their strangeness. Lean On Me (Burt and Hillary) it represents two skinned people in pink cloth, drooping and fat. The costumes that he wears from time to time for photo shoots are also grotesque. The artist created a whole series of figures of this type.
Raised in a family of doctors, Daisy Collingridge was inspired by their different way of looking at the human body. Already as a little girl, she made her own teddy bears, then she studied fashion design to finally learn to sew in her own way. It was also inspired by terrifying anatomical illustrations, particularly those of the 16th-century physician Andreas Vesalius. “I’m trying to adopt his line, between funny and horrible.” What does her family think of her muscular cotton dolls? What are they “very very very strange”. But they are one.