Body Politic Exhibition Opens 9/12 At NYU Kimmel Gallery

New York University Kimmel Windows Gallery presents Lilia Ziamou: body politic /bäd?" päl-tik featuring work by NYU Alumna Lilia Ziamou (Tisch ITP, Class of 2013). This exhibition includes sculptural and two-dimensional works that offer unique interpretations of the human body meant to deconstruct and subvert viewers' perception of reality.

Curated by NYU's Kimmel Windows Gallery Lead Curator, Pamela Jean Tinnen, Lilia Ziamou: body politic /bäd?" päl-tik encourages us to consider what it means to be human in a world where technology saturates everyday life, blurring our understanding of humanity's true existence through the elaborate web of simulacrum created by society's engagement with digital technology.

Throughout the exhibition's thought-provoking display, we examine the known and unknown ramifications technology may have on our physical bodies, our collective psyche, and humanity as a whole. These 12 site-specific installations offer a visual interrogation of the complex struggles between the individual self and modern society as a whole.

The exhibition has two related but distinct sections. The works included in the four-part installation along West 3rd Street are based on a 3D scan of actual human hip-bone anatomy. By successive physical and digital processes, Ziamou transforms and recreates the bone's anatomy.

In The Bone as Body, the dissected bone-form sculptures maintain an esoteric quality reminiscent of their prototype (in texture and composition). In the accompanying installations, the bone form undergoes a radical metamorphosis, from that of a pattern to an aggregated dress-sculpture. These sculptures resonate with attributes that are hauntingly abject, evocative of human anatomy's flesh and bone. They are presented in concert with a selection of the fashion sketches that informed Ziamou's elaborate artistic process. By maintaining the bone's observable essence, these installations invite our viewers to rethink existing preconceptions of physical materiality, and in this way, explore alternative interpretations of the human form. To create the digital compositions featured in the eight corresponding windows along LaGuardia Place, Ziamou combines and manipulates hundreds of close-up photographs of her sculptural works. These compositions allow for a further exploration of ideas related to fragmentation, transformation and distorted realities.

"By reimagining and reconstructing body fragments, I am constantly exploring and intrigued by the ways we can challenge existing constraints of form, materials, and processes" said Lilia Ziamou. "I am interested in the dialogue about how seeing differently unlocks new meanings."