Photogasm: Trapped in a Female Body

Deianira Tolema

My research began in earnest some 8 years ago. My favorite subject: individual power and cultural freedom. To start I had to analyze the connections between individuals and cultural institutions, and the power web that drew one towards and into the trappings of the other. Human psychology was revealed in the most interesting way, I discovered through art production. Art is in effect a form and means of self-appropriation. Collective consciousness is a kind of cultural neural net spread across our minds – and its life is both global and local. It evolves, sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly, sometimes in reverse! But in my “fieldwork” I’ve discovered, or better chanced upon, beauty. And this was in contemporary art: a beguiling puzzle put together by the widest range of individuals for the oddest and most seductive reasons. It was a life-changing event that allowed me to look back and look ahead, to see and to feel a good measure of truth. In beauty, there is an opportunity to create and understand our “spatiotemporal identities” and the strange filters we apply to our most intimate and most far-reaching boundaries.