Paula Gogola

Lives and works in Prague, Czechia

Artist statement

Paula Gogola - artist statement Much of my work begins with the body, its limits, and the technologies through which it is imagined, classified, designed, and modified. A prosthesis, a surgical instrument, a strap, a metal frame each introduces another logic into the body. The body begins to appear as a site of negotiation, where technological systems both respond to bodily desire and produce new ideas of what a body might become. This creates a strange feedback loop. We use technologies to construct ourselves, while those technologies quietly instruct us in how to understand the self. My practice has been stemming from a mythopoetic register toward this unstable territory between flesh and system, where the body is rendered and made available to transformation. My practice builds a speculative parafiction upon the living conditions of a transgender woman in pursuit of transcendence both on material and spiritual level. Framework for orienation comes from xenofeminist writings, speculation around emerging technologies, crip theory, and experimental fiction - all have become important references. Those are my devices for imagining what happens when speculative ideas acquire shape and form. The paintings are subjected to a second framing. Sleek metal structures hold their edges while extending beyond them, cutting through the compositions as if another system had been superimposed onto the image. They behave less like conventional frames than like inverse frames: instead of...

Artwork