Corporeal Glitch

About

In a bespoke installation that weaves text around their photographs, Atherton and Calvi invite viewers to engage in conversations generally limited to artists and critics. Both artists use the body and appropriated images to create uncanny and surreal works that encompass a variety of contemporary conversations about the state of the image in a post-photographic, cyborgian and image driven society.

From the curation of images to analog and digital manipulation, Atherton incorporates absurd gestures and compositions to repurpose private moments for public consumption. Her images explore the construction and perception of identity while investigating the rituals of performance behind portraiture and the element of reproduction within the medium itself.

Calvi focuses on the representation of sexuality and subjectivity within the digital sphere. Her surreal digital collages from found negatives of pin-up girls provoke questions regarding how we consume and depict images of sexuality. Calvi combines text with images as a subversive tactic against censorship of the body while further examining feminist modes of revolt. She blends research and found materials with her own photographs, writing, and video work to use subjectivity as a strategy of resistance. Equally invested with historical representations and contemporary visual imagery of women, her work draws from feminist historical archives while considering our creation of a digital one.

Collaborating with designer Nick Chaffee, the artists have shared intimate observations from their research and a series of questions to engage the audience and further a dialogue which encourages understanding of the image in our digital age.