Disembodied

Composed of visions of isolated, separated body parts, Disembodied presented a fragmented, hallucinatory whole that collided notions of corporeality, aging, and experience within and without the body. The exhibition featured works by Louise Bourgeois, Berlinde de Bruyckere, Robert Gober, David Hammons, Kiki Smith, and others in an intergenerational group of historically significant artists known for incisive investigations into the interaction between body and identity.

In his Meditations on First Philosophy (1641), French philosopher and mathematician René Descartes first articulated a distinct separation between the immaterial mind and the material body. Hundreds of years later, science and technology still aim to free us from our physical limitations. Composed of a simple and literal premise—two arms, two legs, a torso, and a head—Disembodied was installed to reflect the human form as well as the complex and sometimes troubled relationship between mind and body.