Our skin is known for physically encapsulating the complexities of our bodies and mediating the exchange between our inside and outside worlds. In a society largely guided by the visual paradigm this protective canvas often becomes a sort of ‘surface of truths’ that can lead to problematic reductionist and stagnant interpretations of what one thinks one sees.

I am interested in the body as something that is constantly vibrating, transforming, engaging, exchanging, establishing relations with elements of the world. Many of my works involve using the body as an active site through which different kinds of internal and external borders and boundaries can be explored, expanded and ultimately blurred.

Incorporo explores this aspect very simply, by juxtaposing the characteristics of my own body with that of other animals, objects and landscapes projected onto my skin. This process unites three modes of perceiving the body: the body as something we have (as ‘object’), the body as something we are (as ‘subject’), the body as something we become (as ‘performativity’). Through the canvas of my skin distinct and often strangely familiar visual worlds can meet and dissolve into one another, generating an interesting (i)material uncertainty through which I try to open space for the surfacing of new composite becomings and an expanded sense of belonging.

Incorporo is an ongoing project.
The photos selected for this gallery were taken by Angela Alegria, in Brasil 2011.

* Click here to see INCOPORO #4 (part of Animal Works)

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* Click here to see INCOPORO #4 (part of Animal Works) Dani d’Emilia, 2011 / Fotos: Angela Alegria