The Body Beneath * Anna Daniell, Birke Gorm, and Frida Orupabo BY VICTORIA DUFFEE The cruelty of white supremacy, sprinkled everywhere, is not always * The title of this essay is a reference I found while something tangible like a billy club; nor are the microscopic bactediving deep into Frida Orupabo´s ever-evolving ria that can tickle your throat and/or end your life. Recent events catalogue of images on of racial violence and viral death bring more shapeless culprits to Instagram via her page, @neimepebe. It is the light. Parallel to this thought: the body is crucial as it gives form to title of a 1970 horror movie about a vampire life but the “self” that I feel like I am couldn’t be described as a body family, but I think it alone. Art objects (excluding paintings) that deal with the body tend speaks to a second kind of space we occupy. to be critically considered in relation to the corpse. Anna Daniell, Birke Gorm, and Frida Orupabo are three artists that through scale, subject, and presentation make sculptures that are analogous to bodies. However, through their materiality and process, they challenge the reading of the body as a corpse and invite for an engagement with their art that insists on taking the unknowable seriously.
She’s so Lucky, she’s a Star
Anna Daniell spends most of her studio hours planning and organising experiences for her sculptures. Some of them drove in a Tesla with suicide doors; a composer has written music for some; scientists have spent time talking to others. They have rich cultural lives. Even though there is nothing comical about the way they look, they’re funny. I think their experiences affect their energy. Anna describes herself whipping up their forms quickly. Her materials are chosen for their lightness and absorbency of paint. I think she takes for granted the years of practice it took to be able to make something from scratch that will stand up, let alone to control how it looks. Either way, it looks like a lot of rubbing is involved. Anna told me anecdotally about a community that had a secret. When the young people came of age they were told
160
