becky flanders
by Leah Sandler
Universes as They Could Be
With an academic background in artifi cial life and digital arts , Becky Flanders ’ approach to her artistic practice borrows the “ life-as-it-mightbe ” paradigm of artifi cial life ’ s philosophical modeling , deciphering the most essential processes of life and implementing them in new situations — confrontational images of the human body , ambiguously political fi ber works , and sensual , kaleidoscopic photographs nodding towards some unknowable cosmos . These multifaceted interests and processes are , to Flanders , all connected — the political and the sensual both represented in our fractured and multiplicitous human experience . “ We no longer live in a world , but in worlds .”
Becky Flanders ’ fl eshy , fractured , and fractal photographs make infi nite multiverses of isolated body parts . The artist builds kaleidoscopes herself , with hand-cut mirrors and spray foam , using them as lens extensions to photograph her chosen subject matter in an all-analog and physical process . The resulting images are unnerving manifestations of the stuff we imagine we are made of at the most minute level : the sacred geometries of our bodies , biomes , and stardust . “ I use them to photograph people , body parts , plants , fl owers , leaves , berries , eyes , mushrooms , water ... all sensual things . I am extremely inspired by the biota , and the Florida wilds and springs , by the sheer , undeniable force of life here that eats buildings left unattended .”
Flanders frequently uses her own body as the subject of these photos , using a remote to trigger the camera and additional mirrors to assist her in composing the shots . The kaleidoscopes are built to be touched , and held against the body while shooting ; the sharp edges of cut mirror fragments softened and joined with spray foam . Flanders says she has also had models pose for the photos , however , the physical challenges of the compositions make this diffi cult —“ Get into this cold water full of roots and plants and take your pants off and put this cut-glass object up against your most sensitive parts .”
In some of these photographs , there is visible evidence of the trappings of our more mundane existence , and the construction of the photos themselves — a fractal glimpse of fl esh not contained in the inclined , infi nitely refl ective panes of the kaleidoscope ’ s framed composition , a carpeted fl oor , or the camera ’ s intruding lens . In this constructed multiverse , where “ slight movements create radically different images ,” there is a view into our own universe . “ The singularity , nigh or not , is not yet upon us . We are still here , we still breathe and need , and the dirt still oozes between our toes and nourishes our squishy , needy bodies .”
In the series Standing Female Urination , the body becomes an actor with agency in the universe , rather than the stuff that holds it together . Subverting the art historical tradition of a decorative female nude , Flanders ’ heavily constructed portraits depict the artist herself as the Venus of Willendorf , the Virgin Mary , and Ophelia , gracefully and intentionally posed , standing proudly , in the subversive act of releasing impressive streams of urine into various vessels . Other photos in the series depict the same quotidian act of urination , taking on a quality of anonymity and intimacy with the identity of the subject disguised
A HORRIFYING MIX OF ORDER AND LIES , cross stitch
Orlando Arts & Culture , v . 2.3
34