Phantom Bodies: The Human Aura in Art (2015)
by Mark W. Scala
Published by Vanderbilt University Press (Nashville, TN)
on the occasion of Phantom Bodies: The Human Aura in Art at the Frisk Art Museum from October 30, 2015 - February 14, 2016
Details:
Paperback, 116 pages
Features illustrated essays by Martha Buskirk, Lisa Saltzman, and Eleanor Heartney; an introduction by Mark W. Scala; and a foreword by Susan H. Edwards
ISBN-10: 0826520898
ISBN-13: 978-0826520890
For more information contact the publisher
The exhibition and its accompanying catalog include artworks that indicate such presences through surrogates: shadows, imprints, or masks; objects as memento mori, or as other matter or energy. The title is derived from the phenomenon known as the phantom limb syndrome. Those experiencing this have lost some part of their bodies but feel it to be still present. While it is a source of sensation and frequently pain, the phantom limb here symbolizes the weight of absence, the longing to fill the spaces that accrue through life.
Artists: Magdalena Abakanowicz, Barry X Ball, Christian Boltanski, Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller, Adam Fuss, Ken Gonzalez-Day, Alicia Henry, Damien Hirst, Shirazeh Houshiary, Anish Kapoor, Elizabeth King, Deborah Luster, Sally Mann, Teresa Margolles, Ana Mendieta, Shirin Neshat, Gerhard Richter, Doris Salcedo, Annelies Štrba, and Bill Viola.
