“Chrysalis: Morphology (2018)” by Rory Klopper
Title:
- Chrysalis: Morphology (2018)
Artist(s) and People Involved:
Exhibiting Artist(s):
Symposium:
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Artist Statement:
I approached this work as if I were scientifically documenting a (hybrid) creature, such as a butterfly, in the act of transformation – from one state of being to another. My primary interest is the social implications of my homosexuality. As much as this work is about my engagement of my own issues: the lens through which I view my sexuality, feeling like an imposter within the heteronormative worldview, and trying to understand post- modernist views on the body as a social construct, and paradoxically the physicality and tangibility – aches and pains – of the body as an organism, it is also a work that cannot avoid its problematizing of my white (gay) body using a black (gay) body to engage with the manifestation of identity – when these bodies attach themselves to their historical contexts. The metallic skin that enshrouds and obscures the gaze creates a conversation between nature and culture through which the body emerges. The abyss from which the images emerge creates a quiet space for contemplation detached from my physical reality in which the politics of my body is immersed.
Sponsors:
University of KwaZulu-Natal, SA
