Making Bodies

Making Bodies is a materially-driven sculpture
studio course open to intermediate and upper-level
undergraduate and graduate students that aims to
generate alternative ways of viewing and
understanding bodies. Students will manipulate
materials to reimagine what bodies can be, what
they can do, how they signify, and how they can
resist and challenge common and reductive
conceptions of essentialized bodies and
identities. Students will use a variety of
different processes-from casting, creating
assemblages using found materials, and
experimenting with developing your own techniques
and gestures of material transformation. The
course incorporates readings, presentations, and
discussions on the critical role of sculpture in
the societal construction of bodies in conjunction
with race, gender, and other identities within
systems of power and privilege. We will look at
contemporary artistic practices that push the
limits of sculptural traditions and hierarchies as
a means of producing alternative ways of engaging
with racism, sexism, transphobia, and other social
justice issues while expanding the discourse of
sculpture.