Ram Shergill: ​Posthuman Bodying. The Birth of a Critical Posthuman Practice

About

Ram Shergill
​Posthuman Bodying  
The Birth of a Critical Posthuman Practice

 
In this exhibition, artist Ram Shergill’s work hypothesises modes of “becoming other together” through sympoiesis (making-with in collectively producing systems). Assemblages of human and non-human agency are established, forging a new form of “Critical Posthuman Practice,” furthering the concept of a new human — a human after the pre-existing human. A new identity is formed through Posthuman Bodying, in which the human body engages in pertinent and critical relations with nature and the ecological environment.

The exhibition explores the viewpoint of a human ''becoming natural'' in an environment via sympoiesis (conjoining with the nonhuman through collectively producing systems). Ram Shergill’s work analyses the human body through a performative and aesthetic façade, depicting a visual “Growth of Form.” The human body itinerates radically extending its perceived anatomy, creating new alliances with various species altruistically in the creation of an enhanced “Critical Posthuman Body.” Nature advances through co-evolving, posing a direct challenge to the perception of “being” as linear and static. Instead, this work contends that the human body is a collective of multiple organisms and the human can be extended further to become natural in an environment via a form of organic Posthuman Bodying.

The human identity morphs into newer directions and challenges the perception of the “singular body” when it is aligned cohesively with multispecies entities. The works presented in the exhibition intend to elucidate the notion that we are a species that is convergent and are co-dependant with living organisms and are continuously becoming, in the framework of an ontological hybridisation. Creatively we form a dynamic co-existence in which organisms flow into other organisms. Cells and a multitude of organism’s “co-evolve” and dance in a form of radical relationality – adapting, protecting, creating, mutating rhizomatically[1] with each other in the metabolic universe that is known as the holobiont.

The artworks set out to critically question the intra-relationship between human, animal and botanic organisms. This exhibition sets the foundation to go beyond the visual (re)appropriation of animal characteristics in human appearance, and acts as a catalyst for developing new technologies in the fields of external morphology. This exhibition is part one of the exploration into Ram Shergill’s Carapace systems which will eventually create an outer layer of biogenic flesh, using methods of adaption, growth, and reconfiguration as a response to harsher conditions on Earth and for life support beyond Low Earth Orbit (LEO).

[1] Rhizome is a term used by Deleuze and Guattari and can be described as an itinerant flow of practices, Rhizome was a philosophical concept and developed in their Capitalism and Schizophrenia project. Rhizomes work with trans-species connections and become an “interbeing” and are considered nomadic in culture, science, and theory. In Botany it is known as a plant stem growing from a root in various directions.
Part 1 of the Exhibition will explore the relationality of the human body with various species and how they can “intra-relate” in the creation of posthuman bodies. The birth of a “Critical Posthuman Practice” is established. A “multispecies ethnography” will be carried out at MOCA gallery using art and technology.

Part 2 of the exhibition will elaborate on the concept of “Critical Posthuman Bodying” developing the notion of “intra-relationships” of the human and nonhuman form. The human and nonhuman form assimilate and establish arrangements via sympoiesis in the creation of ecological assemblages through technological devices.  The ontological and rational objectivity of the human is challenged, in which the “being” further develops through a symbiotic mix of animal cells and microbes in the creation of a critical posthuman identity. Shergill’s living artworks are exhibited at MOCA London (Peckham), which depict “function and form,” elucidating bodily forms of art and technology through performativity, in the construction of “The Critical Posthuman Carapace.”

In addition to the exhibitions, there will be a symposium during part 2 in collaboration with University College London, including a panel discussion regarding Ram Shergill’s concept of a “Critical Posthuman Practice.” The symposium and panel discussion will feature prolific international guest speakers from the world of art, academia, and technology.

Artist Biography
Ram Shergill is currently undertaking doctoral research at University College London, The Bartlett of Architecture under the supervision of Professor of innovative environments, Professor Marcos Cruz, and Associate Professor in sustainable bioprocess design at UCL Biochemical Engineering, Dr. Brenda Parker.  His thesis title is “The Critical Posthuman Carapace: Constructing Exoskeletal Hybrid Living Systems (EHLS)” in which he creates novel forms of architecture in constructing a carapace acting as a shield to the body, as a response to harsher conditions on Earth and beyond Low Earth Orbit (LEO). Using architectural design in combination with biochemical engineering, forms of bioregenerative outputs are created, combining human with non-human organisms, explicating a mode of critical posthuman practice. His research aims to explore the present-day body from a new and uncharted viewpoint using advanced apparatus and technologies. Examining forms of sympoietic relationality, challenging the perception of the body as a singular cultural agent. Methodologically, the systemic approaches in creating a carapace will function as a set of biologically integrated interfaces between the body and its surroundings.

In principle, Shergill’s research sets out to reimagine and redefine the body in an environmentally fragile planet — achieving new aesthetics, evidencing systems and materials which respond to internal and external transformations relating to the human body, through the construction of Exoskeletal Hybrid Living Systems (EHLS).

Ram Shergill captures a kaleidoscope of different cultures through his interdisciplinery art practice including, photography, film, creative direction, fine art and design. Internationally recognised for his contribution to the industry, Ram remains at the forefront of his field, using methodologies in creative practice  to create a discussion that questions the notion of identity, dress and the power of performitivity. Ram is a visiting lecturer at UAL and has previously lectured at Falmouth University and Arts University Bournemouth. In addition to lecturing, he has been a keynote speaker at various conferences and galleries internationally.
Being of British Indian origin has given Ram an intercultural upbringing allowing him to understand the effects of marginalisation and underrepresentation. In his practice, he has been rectifying effects of marginalisation and inequality in the university setting and in the workplace. Fundamentally, this has been achieved by Ram taking on an active role in leading more of an inclusive pedagogy through contemporary and pertinent EDI practice and research.

Ram was awarded the Arts Culture and Theatre Award (ACTA) in 2016 for his contribution to the arts. His work has been shown in exhibitions internationally including Sotheby’s, The Wallace Collection, Somerset House, and the Whitechapel Gallery. Ram Shergill’s portraits are now housed in the permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery.

www.ramshergill.com
instagram @ramshergill