Inside the glass, the abstract tide of skin
Jessica Schuhmann
2022, installation/video performance, 15:25, plastic foil and black paint
This project is investigating the intrinsic relation between body and language. In repeated attempts to write on my body, I am exploring the gesture of inscribing my own skin and thus describing the illegibility of the self. Thereby, the focus lies on conceptualizing the processes of description and workings of non-verbal expression, rather than achieving a universally comprehensible message. By creating new lenses and layers of perception, this auto-poetical action opens a space for re-examining the prerogatives of description and questions the interpretational authority over female skin. Finally, the work revolves around the very physicality of the body and its metaphysical fluidity amidst realities: Skin evolves to an extensive entity, whereas writing becomes a strategy of re-constructing the social body through language.
