JOANA RICOU – Multitudes

Press Release

Multitudes

Biology provides us with different perspectives to identify our fragments and re-integrate them.  Whitman’s line, “I contain multitudes,” resonates in experience and, increasingly, our scientific understanding of ourselves.  We are made of many parts, and many types of parts, that work together in a vibrant cacophony.

This series explores continuity and boundary, ideas which are fundamental to the definition and integrity of our sense of self and individual identity.

Press Release

Joana Ricou presents Multitudes, an on-line exhibition exploring the multiplicity of the self. We are made of many parts, and many types of parts, organized in many ways at once.  In Whitman’s words, we contain multitudes – we are walking cacophonies.

Biology provides us with different perspectives to identify parts of body and mind. We think of the human body (and consequentially of the individual) as a solid whole, neatly separated from the environment by a layer of skin and organized by a central organ. Recent discoveries contradict this, showing that the human body is better understood as a super-organism that includes more non-human than human cells, and that intention and decision making take place and more…

 These pieces explore themes of fragmentation and discontinuity in the body, but are completed only when observed, as the viewer’s tendency to seek or project embodiment re-integrates the new-found part.

Ricou’s background in biology cultivated an early interest in how this field challenges our conceptions of the body and self. Findings usually confined to the sphere of science and health are turning out to have psychological, social and existential implications. What does it mean when processes like learning or addiction are found under the microscope? That emotions like fear and psychological constructs like instinct have biological foundations?

 Art, including oil painting, has always been a tool for scientists to study and communicate their understanding of the human body. Today, Ricou uses it to explore the present transformation of that understanding.