In the digital age bodies are being pinched and distorted by the powers of technology. We’ve become real life cyborgs with infinite knowledge and global reach at our fingertips any time of day. We exist in multiple forms, through numerous digital channels which are immortalised on the net.
It all sounds like sci-fi poetry, but most of us mere mortals are only scratching the surface when it comes to exploring the boundaries of our bodies and the possibilities of technology. These artists are taking it to the next level, using the body (or the idea of it) as a tool for creating something beyond human.
A cross disciplinary artist using prosthetics and image manipulation as a way to explore dehumanising the human body making us question the boundaries of the human body, and what makes us “human”?. Constantine also creates digital collages; where they take images of human body parts and reconfigure them into humanoid animal figures. Creating something like a 23rd century centaur.
Spanish artist Filip Custic who has previously collaborated with the likes of Camper, Gucci & Rosalia, to mention but a few, creates hyper-surreal universes in which the laws of gravity, time and space do not apply. In these imagined worlds bodies contort, multiply and divide through the use of materials like mirror and glass.
Zimbabwean born artist, Kumbirai Makumbe, forges metallic blob-like entities called ‘Murmurations’ that replace the need of a body in their work. They shrink, explode, melt and transcending the physical limitations of the human body in an effort to express that which the body can’t.
Salvia (formally known as sadsalvia) uses a combination of some extreme makeup skills and image manipulation, to create self-portraits in the form of something between a beautiful H.R. Giger drawing, and a Cronenburg creature.
A recent collaborator of Filip Custic, Virgen Maria is the musician come performance artist, who is here to “blex” you (that means to ‘bless your sex’). Her work is a blend of technology, sensuality and spirituality. The self proclaimed virgin nymph’s debut album is set to release this year – which has been a long time coming considering she claims to be 1,000 years old.
The design duo – Steven Raj Bhaskaran and Hannah Rose Dalton – design and create out of this world garments, which feature deconstructed tailoring and accessories drenched in chains, not to mention “The Skin Heel”.
