Fiddling in Our Own Skin
Chicago-based mixed-media artist wants you to think about your relationship with your own bodies and make visible what women endure.
Chicago-based Canadian artist Michelle Alexander has just closed her exhibition, My Body / Your Object, at Matthew Heberlain Contemporary. The highlight of the exhibition was a bodies printed on tapestry laid on the floor. The audience can choose to trample the body, or observe from the floor. No matter what they do, their action puts the printed body into one of the situations presented by the tagline: “To be walked on. To be held. To be consumed. To be stared at. To be dismissed. To be owned.”
With years of experience as a fashion designer, Alexander addresses the tension risen from trying to fit into one’s own skin and the invisible endurance and lingering trauma forced upon women from having to impress and please toxic beauty standards as well as gender stereotypes appointed by a patriarchal society.
Alexander’s journey to art is winded. Growing up in Montreal, art was always a part of Alexander’s life and education, except her professional career started with competitive ski racing with ambitious plans to go to the Olympics. The stress from that lifestyle made Alexander turn to art as an outlet to work through her anxieties.
Following her intuition, Alexander received a BFA in Painting and Photography from the University of Miami. However, feeling intimidated by the art world and uncertain about her own strength as an artist, she took a detour and chose a trade program where she learned about fashion, design, and creating wearable art — an experience that integral to her current practice.
However, the pure, undisturbed creativity in fashion school was quickly challenged by the crude and often cruel work environment in the fashion industry. Not only was creativity shoveled to the corner and Alexander’s day-to-day filled by logistics and organizational tasks, the artist also experienced various levels of workspace abuse. Burnt out by toxicity, she once again retreated into art.
“It filled me up so much when I had forgotten how much being creative is important to my life and my wellbeing, and understanding myself,” said Alexander.
This revelation led to her creating throughout lockdown and eventually prompted her to go back to school with precious and diverse life experience to be poured into her work.
Body policy and male gaze are both popular subjects women artists tend to explore. However, Alexander’s work carries a different caliber of audacity and confrontation. For example, the women’s heads in Toxic Beauty. Tears of Perfection are mounted like trophy heads on a hunter’s wall. At the same time, they also resemble grieving, praying women knelt down in a confession booth.
“Trends present us with diverse perspectives. Under their sway, what was once detestable can become tolerable, and eventually, endearing,” said the exhibition statement. “We are unique objects, feeling a constant artificial pressure to modify and conform what is organic and natural. A vast chasm grows between knowing and feeling.”
What feeling? Heaviness, sadness, and stillness. The heads stare down at mirrors installed along the edge of the floor, fixating imaginary gazes upon their own reflections with no where to go. They remind me the days when I felt exhausted yet still forced myself to get dressed: I’d look at myself in the mirror and see the emptiness in my eyes. But I also see the compassion and kindness I held for myself in my eyes. So perhaps, the audience should try to kneel by the window, look into their reflections, and hold some space for themselves too — just to embrace themselves.
Alexander’s work is raw, vivid, and sometimes uncomfortable. Her choice of materials often create an organic surface that imitate the color and texture of human flesh to an impressive level, and her incorporation of daily objects like hair brushes, hairdryers, mugs, and gym equipment, then establish an undeniable correlation between the flesh and the culture. The frequent use of mirrors or reflective surfaces is another interesting element, allowing the audience to reflect upon their relationships with themselves. As the reflection goes from a clear, direct mirrored image to those blocked by paint splatters to something more distorted on an irregular surface, our perception of ourselves also become challenged.
“I try to be very raw in my work. I use my body a lot as the base layer or the imagery, as a way to be vulnerable and meet the viewer half way,” said Alexander. “A lot of my work asks the viewer to get there emotionally — and that’s a lot to ask someone. But I consciously leave my face out of the work, instead, I use very vague and fractured imagery, so anybody can see themselves in the work. My work tells a very personal story, but I also want it to be as open and interpretable as possible for my audience.“
Having seen success in solo exhibitions and two-people collaborations, Alexander’s is currently working on her first group exhibition as a curator.
“The exhibition is about women’s experience, so I didn’t have too much trouble finding women artists who aligned with the theme,” said Alexander. “However, I wanted this exhibition to be bigger than Chicago. Many Chicago shows feature local artists — rightfully so — but I want to show artists from beyond this region. I will highlight local artists, for sure. But I also want to bring in artists from New York and LA to have this grander view from the outside looking in.”
The artists in the exhibition are those Alexander looks up to herself. In a sense, then, this upcoming exhibition is also a conversation between women artists at different career stages from the three major art cities in the US. The exhibition will open during this year’s Art EXPO on April 25th and run for approximately a month at Ivory Gate Gallery at 44 East Cedar Street.
If you’re interested in following Michelle’s work, you can find her full portfolio on her website, or follow her latest updates on Instagram.