Always a Body

Our intelligence, our perceptions, our deeds — virtually anything that makes us who we are — is the result of our bodies’ interactions with the world around us.

“It’s the home for our thoughts and intentions,” said UC Santa Barbara master of fine arts student Vanesa Gingold, of this “interface” between ourselves and the world. “We both embrace and push against this limit — the ephemerality of the body, and the delicacy of being within a body. We also wonder if it’s ever possible to transcend the body.” 

With this concept in mind, Gingold and fellow MFA student Emily Baker have curated “Always a Body,” a group exhibition that explores our more corporeal natures and the myriad physical experiences we share as we mediate our environment, carry our histories or acquire new knowledge.

The show continues through Friday, February 5 at the Glass Box Gallery, 1328 Arts Building, at UCSB. An artists’ talk will take place at 5 p.m., Feb. 5, followed by a closing reception from 6 to 9 p.m.

The exhibit features selected works from nine MFA students in the Los Angeles area who responded to Gingold and Baker’s call for submissions. Creating with photography, paint or sculpture, the artists — each working toward an MA or MFA in their own disciplines — express what it’s like to be a physical body interacting with the world.

“The works we chose seemed to have a lot of tension between each other, which I liked,” said Baker. Part of the experience of these works rests in the viewers’ own visceral interpretation of the art, from the mundane to the discomforting. “I enjoyed how the artists pay attention to the body even in the quietest of moments,” Baker noted.