Part II of Ram Shergill’s exhibition at MOCA London (part I April 2022), is a continued exploration into the body, the environments we exist in, and our shifting into new relations with other livings forms. Shergill’s new works elaborates further the ideas and concepts of the “critical posthuman bodying” and bioregenerative systems. Through photography and sculptures, he pushes the materiality by fusing living matter with his photos and sculptures developing the notion of “intra-relationships” of the human and nonhuman form.
“In the future the human body can be furthered by layering the anatomy with a series of bioregenerative encasements. Bioregenerative systems are systems that are made up of artificial ecosystems incorporating complex and symbiotic relationships between microorganisms, animals, and higher plants. The future human (posthuman) body is extended through a novel type of “body building” working with multispecies entities. Working and layering the body with various species in speculative architectures allows for mutually beneficial gaseous exchange between the human and nonhuman, enabling possible adaptations of the body to harsher and alien environments. This exhibition explores the embodying of living systems through visions of a critical posthuman practice using artistic interpretations. Engaging with the ontological, technological, and aesthetic manifestations of the body combined with the biological and physiological anatomy realises a hybridised sympoietic type of posthuman body building. Human and nonhuman bodies are furthered in unison using adaptation, growth andrefiguration achieving unique transformative possibilities through Bioregenerative Bodies.“ Ram Shergill.
The two exhibitions at MOCA London are a result of Ram Shergill’s doctoral research at University College London, The Bartlett of Architecture and based on his thesis “Visions of a Critical Posthuman Practice: Embodying Exoskeletal LivingSystems (ELS)”. Working closely with biochemical engineering, architectural design and bioregenerative methods, Shergill’s work hypothesizes modes of“becoming other together” through sympoiesis (making-with in collectively producing systems). Ram Shergill’s work analyses the human body through a performative and aesthetic façade, depicting a visual “Growth of Form.”
The exhibition sets out a critical discussion of our existence in a quickly changing environment and question the intra-relationship between human, animal,and botanic organisms. It furthers brings the questioning of a new form of human bodies.
For the exhibition an accompanied catalogue of the part I and part II will be available during the exhibition period.
Ram Shergill – Bioregenerative Bodies – Posthuman Body Building – 8 – 28 October – Opening event Sunday 8 October 2 – 4 pm