Body Anxiety is an online exhibition that opened January 24, 2015. It made an unexpectedly strong impact and was highly discussed.
Link to Schrager’s curatorial statement.
Body Anxiety shares the varied perspectives of artists who examine gendered embodiment, performance and self-representation on the internet. Throughout art and film history, the female body and nude has been an ongoing subject in male-authored work. More often than not, the woman’s body is capitalized on in these works while their voice is muted. From the Seventies onwards, female artists employed video and performance to reclaim their bodies from this art historical trajectory. Today, artists use the internet as a platform to create and share their own imagery. While appropriation might be a common practice in contemporary art, using the internet as gender-queer performative space allows artists to question contemporary attitudes towards femininity. In “Body Anxiety” Schrager and Chan have selected a collection of female-empowering artworks to present in one single location in hopes of reshaping pre-existing narrative of gendered appropriation.
Curated by Leah Schrager and Jennifer Chan
Press:
Artforum
Rhizome
Dazed & Confused
Animal NY
Slutist
Artslant
The Hundreds
Autre
Topical Cream
Furtherfield
Missy Mag
Spook Mag
Carroll Fletcher
Sleek Mag
Hyperallergic
Comments Section irl @ BHQFU
Artist as Curator @ The Swiss Institute