Work of Body: Chantel Clausen

Work of Body is a collaboration between two very different artistic expressions: small, intimate watercolour paintings, and a range of undulating, folding foam wall hangings. While they may at first seem to speak a different language, both of these series work towards bringing about an intimacy, an empathy, with the idea of the marginalized body. ---- Chantel Clausen (She/They) is a fat artist, a contemporary painter and sculptor, and her current artistic practice focuses heavily on the body: the space it inhabits; the internalized judgements we are all conditioned to believe; the beauty of the body as an aesthetic object, divorced from emotional entanglement. This exploration stems from her own lifelong struggle with body and weight, disability, and mental illness, as well as her reaction to the contemporary “Body Positive” movement and the backlash to that in culture. She resides in Victoria, BC. ---- The fifty fifty arts collective is comprised of individuals living and working on unceded and occupied First Nations Territories, specifically the lands of the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations, as well as the W̱SÁNEĆ, Sc'ianew and T'Souke First Nations. The programming space itself is situated on Songhees and Esquimalt Territory but engages with individuals and communities across Turtle Island. As a collective we endeavour to deepen our own understandings of how we ar... read more...