Shelley Peterson Student Exhibition 2023 Prize Winner

Press Release

Virtual Spotlight

Artist Interview

Metamorphosis, namely, is change. It is a temporal evolution that is represented in three dimensions. It is a transmutation by altering its physical structure, or an alchemical performance. Such bodily transformation can also be found in notions of gender fluidity. It is similarly chimerical, in that a body shifts from one state of being to another, yet is in constant motion. It is a physical, gestural performance in which the body enacts its will on itself. There is no final stage that is reached, but only a constant flux that cycles between to and from. queerness becomes self-imposed, self-regulated, autonomous rebirth. in other words, queerness is able to function as the ability to reinvent oneself.

In this way, metamorphosis is also a form of (re)birth, so I wanted to evoke that kind of imagery in using the pelvis. gender exists beside the land of the unreal, so the actual representation of the couch is meant to be like a plush toy. instead of only using polyester stuffing, the inside is filled with large, chunky yarn, recalling the feeling and imagery of entrails. The seams are exposed, revealing the “innard” condition. The colours used are exaggerated shades of viscera. Simultaneously, a pair of arms protrude out of the couch, a physical manifestation of bodily intervention (in the same way that gender presentation is based on performance, small gestures that intervene with the other’s perception of one’s body).

The material choices take advantage of their qualities to stretch, bend, deform or distend. Lycra is used as the main fabric; lycra has a slippery/plastic quality, and textiles such as yarn and fur play with expectations of innards as things that are wet, alive or biotic, which heighten the object’s artificiality. This work was originally made as an installation that is meant to be interacted with. When sat upon, the stuffing would shift and bulge according to the way a person would sit.