My Anatomical Folding Book questions scientific knowledge about anatomy, which is standardized by patriarchal structures and Eurocentric thinking. The relationship to one's own body is demonstrated using exemplary white, muscular, heteronormative, healthy body. Throughout human history, this specific body type has been collectively observed and admired in an operating room, celebrating scientific progress of medicine and human sciences. Always at the center is the same type of body, a standard of perfection and invincibility by the human nature of a single man who holds power in his hands. On the other side of history, our bodies have been exoticized and perverted by violence. With this knowledge by experience, my folding books resist against hegemonic thinking structures of European history.
Exemplary bodies do not exist. On the contrary, diversity clearly points to the countless possibilities of body forms and functionalities. I emphasize the potential to play with one's own physicality and challenge the idea of body fluidity. For our non- white bodies, there are numerous reasons to strategically modify them, necessary to heal and rest them. They are not finalized but processual; they are collective. They are often diseased and die every day. With our bodies, I address epistemic violence and colonial thinking that coercively standardizes or completely excludes us from necessary processes. My drawing books play a game where we collectively can construct different forms and compositions without hierarchical orders of organs within us. This idea is neither didactic nor pedagogical;It is an attempt to relearn and rethink what we have been given. This can only happen collectively if we eliminate individual power in our societies.
In this series, a heart takes center stage, serving as a symbol for emotions, love, care, and compassion. When we perceive a body through these lenses, we gain the ability to recognize the positive aspects in others. The Anatomical Folding Book invites us to rethink the concept of the body and challenges us to abandon the tendency to measure and condemn diversity. Objectification of the body is a construct that perpetuates violence and isolation, and this project seeks to disrupt and challenge such notions.
SMALL MANIFESTO
3x 42x59cm und 2x 59x59cm, Vienna 2023
Silent afore
unknown then
softly melting above us
beaming up
in cosmic clouds
we burn into glitter dust.
If they cannot hold us
my dreams will not come true
I fall back and draw again
reddish clouds for us two
