“ The social also has its skin, as a border that feels and that is shaped by the ‘impressions’left by others. The skin of the social might be af ected by the comings and goings of dif erent bodies, creating new lines and textures in the ways in which things are arranged.”
“Inhabiting a body that is not extended by the skin of the social means the world acquires a new shape and makes new impressions.”
- Sara Ahmed, Queer Phenomenologies
(Un)familiar Impressions is a look into the affects and impressions made upon the body by (un)familiar spaces. These spaces can be both public and private. This collective body of work seeks to investigate the dominant structures that form these spaces, and understand how our identities and subjectivities are shaped within them.
Through Ahmed’s concept of the social skin, we want to explore how our bodies are shaped by the bodies of others and the environments they occupy. How does this border change depending on the space we inhabit? How does the skin of the social manifest in public spaces versus private? What impressions are left on the body? The work will explore the discomfort that arises when a non-normative body attempts to extend itself into public space, and the labor that this extension often requires.
Exhibition opening: 12.9 18-21
Opening hours: 13.9 12-20, 14.9 12- 17