Tener un Cuerpo (To Have a Body)

A series of 35 images (ongoing since 2023)

My artistic practice has become my holding space for expanding what the body knows. I’ve learned that my body (and photography) can go places that my mind might not have imagined. In a world that is ever still physical and tangible, though fast becoming virtual and digital, I investigate the thesis that human existence happened because of an accidental succession of steps, which developed by mistake, and therefore proves how important chance is for evolution.*

I depict the human body as a container of emotions, ideas, and stories but also bones, organs and skin. I place an image of a human physique or part of a body as a measuring stick within a set of humble materials such as painted pine wood slats, cardboard, painted paper or glass. I set it in variations of perspective and scale, firstly to trick the eye and explore the limits of perception, and secondly to investigate how we fit our bodies into structures that can be physical and, overall, mental.

The constructed installation functions as an ephemeral collage that I immediately disassemble after the shot, leaving the photographic medium the responsibility of registering its existence, a moment that will never exist again.

*Not long after our ancestral genetic material had distinguished itself from that of sea anemones about 700 million years ago, an entirely random error appeared in our genetic code. New research suggests this mistake set the stage for our bodies to develop the vital organs on which we depend today. (Cited article here)

Lisa Pram is part of »Guest Room: Simon Baker & Aden Vincendeau«.