Productive Bodies MFA Show

Productive Bodies by Chelsea Thompto explores transgender identity in relation to questions of visualization as violence, technology in relation to the body, and how we conceive of the boundaries of the self. In order to explore more deeply these concepts, the artist looks to another body caught up in similar questions, the river, more specifically: the Mississippi. The river she grew up next to, the Mississippi has long been subjected to technologies of seeing and modification in order to make it more productive for militaristic and economic purposes. This, the second installation of this ongoing project features the following curated materials archival maps, medical books, engineering documents, and artist books as well as an artist book, text, ad sound art piece made by the artist.

May 3 – July 31, 2019