Translation

Translation [minus skin] deals with notions of embodiment and identity. The work celebrates the body as a whole and challenges the dichotomized idiom where feelings and emotions are associated with the body and the mind is seen as housed in the brain. In addition, the work accentuates the paradoxical relationship between identities; on one hand, resultant of cultural positioning that is determined by the outer features such as colour of skin hair eyes which become familiar through reflection in the mirror or a photograph. On the other hand, the almost estranged and abstracted translated images of our internal organs seen in computerized, ultrasound or Xray images. Through incorporating CT (Computed Tomography) images of my body, translated further into digitalized images, and printed onto fabric, I aspire to blur the boundaries between the scientific and artistic views of the body. Fibre and Textile art become ‘unfinished closures'—an intention to expose the internal body parts and familiarize the body not as mere container but as an embodied artwork. Movement across and between genres, according to the philosopher Sarat Maharaj, bring the boundaries of art and science to over cross and overlap. This work seeks the spaces where creativity and material engage and emerge.