Corporeal Discomforts features work that explores the body in an unnatural state. Whether artificially engineered, materially transformed, or physically distressed, the limits and malleability of the body is put to test in this series. Corporeal Discomforts includes works by Verónica Peña, Suka Off, Jeremiah Barber, and Bradley Tsalyuk.

The Skull Girls have infiltrated everyday spaces slightly. They are both figures of mourning and celebration. They cross the boundaries of public and private by performing intimate actions in spaces where use has been delineated. The Skull Girls subvert the conventional function of spaces. They reveal the possibilities of all of the quotidian spaces around us.

Bio

Bradley Tsalyuk (US) is an interdisciplinary artist whose work often incorporates sculpture, performance for documentation, and installations. He is a recent graduate from the BFA program at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston.The research that fuels his art practice ranges from investigations into the politics of image making to technology’s relationship to the body. Most recently his research has led to installations and performances that explore the narrative of an apocalyptic event and the culture of survival preparation. Bradley was born in Los Angeles. He currently lives and works in Boston.

Bio

Verónica Peña (Spain/US) is a multidisciplinary artist from Spain based in New York. Peña explores the theme of separation, and the search for harmony through performance art. Her recent work consists of participatory performances that create shared moments amongst strangers. Peña earned her Master of Fine Arts at Stony Brook University, New York, focusing on video and performance art. Peña has exhibited in Spain, Italy, South Korea, and the United States. In New York, her work has been featured at Times Square (Times Square Alliance), the Armory Show 2010 (Gabarron Foundation), the “13th DUMBO Arts Festival (DUMBO Arts Center) and numerous not-for-profit galleries.

On the other hand, the image of flaying alive can also remind the viewers of mythical and historical characters like Marsyas or Saint Bartholomeo. The “skin shedding” – the separation from the matrix – is a converted process of creation. The beginning of the performance shows a finished object / sculpture / image: a man covered in a synthetic substance. The image then gets transformed and deformed. As the end result we receive the “dragon”, an artificial form created on the basis of real human shapes.

Bio

SUKA OFF (Poland) is a Poland-based artist collective that began in 1995. The members of SUKA OFF are Piotr Wegrzynski (founder, visual artist, performer) and Sylvia Lajbig (classical philologist, performer). They have been creating work across visual theatre, performance art, club action, installation, photography, video art and music visuals. SUKA OFF’s work has been presented in theatres, art galleries, clubs and festivals in most European countries, as well as in Canada, Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Japan. The recurring themes of SUKA OFF art are: the human carnality in all its biological and physiological aspects, the attempt to redefine the gender by blurring the individual attributes / sexual codes culturally arrogated to the male and female, the search for alternative and radical forms of communication based on the connection between the living human body and electronic devices and an interest in postindustrial aesthetics, the “clash” between the human body and the substance of steel / aluminum / concrete / silicone.

The artist describes the actions of the performance, “For Dreamburn I construct a replica of my body from rice paper. The effigy is suspended above a pool of water in a flooded basement. I slide beneath it, the reflection of the body on the surface lining up with my body below. Then I set it on fire.”

“Dreamburn” is partially supported by a grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts in New York.

Bio

Jeremiah Barber (US) is an artist based in San Francisco, California who uses sculpture, video and performance to explore the boundaries of the body. He completed an MFA in Art Practice at Stanford University, where he is a Lecturer in Experimental Media. A former member of Marina Abramovic’s Independent Performance Group, his work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, the Headlands Center for the Arts, and the Chicago Cultural Center. Working in public spaces at times for an audience of none, his work explores themes of toil, transcendence and the elusive human spirit.