Image: “COLORBOX”, 2020 – Zachary Grey Phelps, WNDR Museum, Chicago, Illinois.
We know about body modification practices, tattoos, piercings, scarification, and other methods of adding art to our corporeal vessels. What if that was thought of in a different way?
There is a thought, that the body is a temporary vessels housing a spirit, a being, that is not impermanent. What if the clothing, hair, eye color, shape, is just a work of art in itself? It’s changeable, it decays over time, it’s temporal. Much like a site-specific piece of art, it only lasts for a short time in the scheme of things, and once it’s over, it’s over.
In this vein, Warrior Girl is an art piece. She is a temporary item that will end. She is impermanent, with an impermanent identity, a changeable identity even.
If the body is a vessel and consciousness is temporarily contained to this particular container, that can be decorated, sculpted, damaged, repaired, and broken then how is it different from a piece of art?
If you were simply a container – what might you do differently? If you could separate the body from your consciousness and look outside, how would you decorate your body – much like decorating a home – how would you do it?
Let us consider that consciousness itself is a changeable vessel of it’s own – possibly more everlasting than the body – how does this change your view or outlook of life?
Kate McGlynn: Portfolio 