Allison Spence

Region: South

Website: http://www.allison-spence.com

City / State: Tallahassee, FL

I’m interested in what happens when one is confronted with a body that doesn’t conform to our commonly held definitions. “Body” is not limited to physical corporeality and can also refer to verbal bodies or bodies of knowledge or ideology—all have weight, form, and accepted anatomies. I’m interested in the potential within indeterminate bodies.

Because of this interest, my work frequently branches into different fields. This series juxtaposes transplantable organs and the kudzu vine, a complicated, despised plant turned regional symbol (also a transplant). Themes shared by these two motifs include inside vs. outside, invasion vs. amalgamation, hybridity, and identity. The subjects are reflected within the process; the material body of the painting is created through painted plaster sculptures that are scanned and then integrated as prints on the fibers of a textile.

My goal is to create situations where previously delineated forms are exposed as inherently malleable, where their identities are in flux, and where our expectations of them are subverted: a body is solid, until it isn’t.