Figuration and the Body

By Dina Ibrahim

Summer 2012 | ArteZine

Dina Ibrahim: Generally speaking, contemporary art has deemed figuration obsolete in representing such abstract notions as identity and sexuality, yet your work manages to seamlessly integrate the two to rather confronting yet highly aesthetic effects. Why figuration (and precisely the human figure)? And what role does it play in your overall oeuvre?

Hayv Kahramian: I’ve always been drawn to historical figurative work and the human body or more specifically the feminine body. For many centuries the visual emphasis was laid on the exploration and systemization of the human figure both in terms of medical/ anatomical representation as well as esthetically realistic depiction. The human form played a key role in representing fundamental ideas such as birth, life, death and transcendence in western art dating from the renaissance to late 19th century. In fact the portrayal of naturalistic human form dates back to prehistoric times such as in the Paleolithic Venus sculptures.

I find the depiction of the body not only fascinating in terms of machinery but it also serves as a vehicle for socio-political and gender related issues. I find that there is an undeniable familiarity in the depiction of the human form, silent nuances in bodily posture and facial physiognomy that I strive for in my work. Having said this I do also employ abstraction as a means of expression.

DI: Tell me more about your new body of work which drives your investigation of mapping the body and geography further by investigating how the body and the universe are interconnected.

HK: Lately I’ve been fascinated by symmetry and geometry. At the moment I’m working on an installation piece that stems from a further investigation of the new work I’ve been doing that essentially deals with the link of borders and divisions created geographically as well as corporally in the form of anatomical dissections. Within the research of anatomy I came across a field called cross sectional anatomical dissection. The visual inspiration was taken from Wilhelm Braune who performed horizontal dissections on frozen cadavers and in 1877 published a book called “The Atlas of topographical anatomy.” I was able to get a hold of this book and found the cross sections intriguing as they created an uncommon perspective of the human body. I then decided to create a work based on cross sections of my own body, which involved a detailed 3 dimensional scanning and processing of my body done with an accuracy and detail of 0.3 mm. The 3 dimensional scan was then cross-sectioned into ¼” thick slices that amounted to 542 slices from head to toe. The shapes were then nested within 12 pentagons creating hallow configurations to finally form the structure of a dodecahedron.

A dodecahedron is a 3 dimensional geometric shape that is the most globe -like of all five platonic solids and is a symbol of the universe. It is created by 12 pentagonal polyhedra within which the golden ratio is found. Seen from different angles there are three symmetries within a dodecahedron one of which is the five fold symmetry that is also found in flowers, fruits and in some crystals like Pyrite. It is a shape that has inspired artists, philosophers and mathematicians as well as Islamic pattern throughout the ages.

The dodecahedron is where the link back to geographical maps or more specifically map projections occurs. Map projections are representation of a 3D globe unto a 2D surface. Take the example of peeling an orange and placing it flat on the table. The idea of using solids as maps goes back to Dürer as he designed many fold-out drafts or “nets” to form platonic solids. The five regular or Platonic polyhedra (whose faces are equiangular and equilateral) are natural candidates for polyhedral maps. I am here employing the same principle of taking my 3 dimensional body, sectioning it on to a 2 dimensional surface and then reconstructing it as a Platonic solid creating not only a different perspective of the corporeal shape as a whole but also reverting back to the most basic symmetry in nature. The work also becomes an extension of myself as I have chosen to deliberately insert my deconstructed body within.

DI: Expanding on from that, you use your own body in many of your works, I am interested in how this affects the relationship between artist and subject, does it results in any representational paradoxes (similar to the self-portrait paradox; you literally can never paint yourself the way you see yourself, because when you are observing, you are not painting and vice versa)? How do you maintain a stable representation/depiction of self?

HK: In the work mentioned above I have literally extracted my body from the structure. Within this absence the remaining organic holes form an uncommon perspective of the body where the viewer is subsequently left to put together the puzzle pieces in their mind. The work at that point not only becomes a projection of myself but the viewer is actively engaged in the discovery of the image. The subject/object relationship is skewed and in a way it becomes a mirror of sorts. I think there is an underlying enquiry of identity in my work and in some cases my own body serves as a vehicle to explore these problematic issues.

DI: Your new series of works (Fragmented State) that employ the usage of human hair operate in the intersection of corporeality, subjectivity and geography in visual art. I am curious to hear more about the process and works.

HK: The new series of work essentially deals with the fragmentation that occurs both spatially as in geographical or territorial divisions as well as internally within our bodies. This is how I became fascinated with the notion of external dismemberment as an expression of internal disassembly. Because of the inherent attachment of identity to spatial location i.e. our identities are formed based upon the place we are from and subsequently the places we occupy, when this link is broken we find ourselves in a fragmented and disconnected state. This concept is expressed in a few of the works where I examine the anthropometric divisions within a body inspired by Dürer’s systemization of human proportion. The lines that are created by human hair (a reference to gender) and anchored together by map pins are direct references to territorial divisions created on maps. These parting divisions are necessary in identifying anatomical limbs of the human body. Each limb has a name, a function and a distinct visual appearance. To achieve balance and a so-called utopia it is necessary that these limbs operate collectively. They are all interconnected yet different. Nationalism does create to some degree a separation and the notion of “us” and “other” but it does not need to create hierarchy within that thought.

In another group of these works I chose to focus on the idea of medical dissection. Doing research I gravitated towards these early illustrative etchings of dissections or more specifically Valverde who during the 16th century strayed away from the norm and created grotesque, violated representations of the bodies actively engaged in their own dissection. The figures in my work are miming this act where the dissected area is filled with protruding map pins forming a calculated, geometric pattern based on different map projections. The use of map projections in the work represents this calculated, abstract, mappable and geometric space. They are mathematical representations of a 3D globe onto a 2D surface where the graticule (longitude and latitude lines) creates calculated, geometric patterns and shapes. I also chose to include map pins in the work as a direct association to maps and strategic war planning. Maps are very problematic per se as they can be tactical, social constructions and instruments of power. An example is the “Mercator world projection” where Europe’s centrality is the priority and funny enough is used by Google maps!

DI: How do you view the relationship of the subjects of your paintings and sculptures to space or spatiality and identity; whether it is the space within the painting, the geographical space they occupy, or that of the viewer.

HK: I’m very interested in the notion of space and spatiality both in terms of actual geographical location i.e. looking at cartography and the power of maps, visually and socially but also realizing that our bodies occupy a space within themselves. The deconstruction of space, the separation of borders and the creation of boundaries occur in exterior or physical location, which then in itself reflects divisions in our identities and cultures. Quoting Doreen Massey; “the social is inexorably also spatial” (Massey 1994: 265). Space is a construct of social intricacies and interlocking complexities that aid in the creation of our identities. Consequently our identities are contingent on the spaces we occupy. In this work I’m focusing on the eradication of spaces and the obstacles that then occur because of that; how is identity then formed and shaped when spatiality is out of the equation?

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