Body Says, No
Danica I. J. Knežević

Gallery 3

Roomsheet

Body says, No, by Danica I. J. Knežević, examines the complex association and dislocation of the medicalised body and the invisibility of care. The exhibition merges videos and images with mobility aids to draw attention to the medicalisation of the body.

Knežević’s works include: Enacting Dreams/Always Knitting, a video embedded into a walker; Two Way Street, where the artist and her mother display mutual acts of care as a silent comedy movie; Being Home, a photographic series of the artist's home modifications; and Body Says, No, a video projection portraying miniature medical furniture that mimics the way structures demand the body to say, no.

These works aim to disassociate mind from body, spirit from body and emotions from the body by drawing attention to assistive devices, medical support aids and body equipment. How do machines stand in for the body and support it? Uncomfortable and far from individualised, they hold, imprint and hurt the body. When the body says no, it is either for it to hold its ground, to protect itself or because the structure and support aids do not give access to the body. Mobility aids and the body work together to ensure survival. While the aids become a portrait of the body.

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