BODY FORM MANIFESTO
opt-out of judgement.
stop seeing, you have other senses.
the capitalist is a hypervisual being.
make shame your ideal beauty.
start rejecting shape capital.
embodiment becomes enjoyment,
if you distort all forms,
reintegrate and circulate,
your shapes will be reborn.
into fluid natures.
stop seeing, you have other senses.
the capitalist is a hypervisual being.
make shame your ideal beauty.
start rejecting shape capital.
embodiment becomes enjoyment,
if you distort all forms,
reintegrate and circulate,
your shapes will be reborn.
into fluid natures.
Shape Capital works with the fragmentation of shapewear textiles: by unraveling, fanning out, and flattening, the functions, shapes, and structures of shapewear products are made visible and at the same time subverted. Seams, fasteners, and gathers refer to the former mechanisms for controlling the body. But the emptied, alienated, and seemingly unwearable textile hardly reveals which part of the body it served or which ideal it once attempted to conform to. Instead of reproducing a physical ideal, these forms raise questions about the legibility and normativity of bodies. Where do these textiles come from, where are they going? Why were they discarded? How can they be deformed if they no longer deform us?
The resulting works oscillate between alienation and exposure; they reveal the function of shapewear as an instrument for body standardization. The forms are reminiscent of flesh on display, similar to a hunting trophy, which implicitly negotiates the consumption, objectification, and violence against women's bodies.
