Ilana Savdie
Region: MFA Annual
To reason with the limited visual glossary of beauty and health
paragons often conflicts with the grotesque absurdities of the
body. This work is a response to this paradox and a confrontation
of the space we take up when trying to take up as little space as
possible.
I examine the role of the image as both language and matter. In
an attempt to regain agency from the juggernaut of commercial
culture, I put the found stock photograph through digital
disembodiment. In doing so, I am forced to confront materiality
on the screen and establish a set of filters through which I distort
the language of the image. The disembodied image equips me
with a new vocabulary to unpack on the canvas. Informed by the
lived paradoxes of the body in space, I exploit the dichotomy of
the carnality of oil paint and the optical contradictions of flat
layers. This work untangles experiences of disidentification,
consumption, the uncanny, and the grotesque.
![](https://nap-master.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/styles/entry_thumb/public/Savdie_Dead-Cells-No2A.2.jpg?.SdG3e7ekMUJ83P5VV4I7BWhqU5Nse1F&itok=goN3lYql)
![](https://nap-master.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/styles/entry_thumb/public/Savdie_Facewaver-Pink-No1B.2.jpg?KgjIyxQVHbwVf7NMshiu2ew8DjyTCjRc&itok=3GeinyWn)
![](https://nap-master.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/styles/bio_cover_img/public/Savdie_Headshot.2.jpg?nxgzcofH7Mf2yC6lblIt7cwRPPK88BU8&itok=n3BNkFOc)