COUNTERCODE: BODIES UN-BECOMING

Author

Aaron Reynolds, University of KentuckyFollow

Files

Year of Publication

2022

Degree Name

Master of Fine Arts in Curatorial Studies (MFA)

Document Type

Master's Thesis, Exhibition Catalogue

College

Fine Arts

Department/School/Program

Art and Visual Studies

First Advisor

Dr. Miriam Kienle

Description

In COUNTERCODE: BODIES UN-BECOMING, my intent is not to present a cohesive map or identify a single, primary mode of resistance. Rather, the five artists I have selected —Shana Moulton, Cooper Gibson, Amy Yeager, Jazmine Morris, and Clara Wouters—explore the socio-cultural implications of identity expression and persona play, particularly as it relates to the encoding of subjectivity in contemporary forms of digital media and pop culture. Their works glitch codes, find slippages, and create opacities in the fabric of capitalist realism, a term used by theorist Mark Fisher to describe the widespread acceptance of capitalism as the only viable economic system. Using Fisher’s capitalist realism as a launching pad, I expand Fisher’s definitional framework to include notions of gender and sexuality and how self-constructed identities exist as well as resist capitalist modes of relation. I also utilize his framework to draw out the darker side of Deleuze’s rhizomatic network of disparate yet intra-acting flows and ruptures. With these artists, COUNTERCODE imagines processes, variations, and un-becomings that might exist outside and counter capitalist modes of relation.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.13023/excats.2022.1

Recommended Citation

Reynolds, Aaron, "COUNTERCODE: BODIES UN-BECOMING" (2022). Graduate Thesis Exhibition Catalogue Gallery, 2022. 1.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/art_exhibitioncat_2022/1