By Lily Wiley ’25
Maggie Genoble ’24 dives into complex ideas about the modern dilemma of bodily awareness in the digital age in her exhibition “Touchy Subjects.”
The exhibition is on display through Feb. 28 in the Richardson Family Art Gallery. Genoble, the 2023-24 Whetsell Fellow, will give an artist talk at 6 p.m. on Feb. 22 in the gallery. The exhibition and the talk are free and open to the public.
Each year, the Whetsell Fellowship is given to a student-artist to provide mentorship and funding for a personal project.
Genoble, an art history and studio art double major from Jonesville, South Carolina, took inspiration for her sculpture exhibit from Donna J. Harraway’s book “A Cyborg Manifesto,” which explores ideas of feminism and materialism through the lens of technology, as well as an interwoven connection between nature and machine.
“The point of the show, in a lot of ways, is how you can relieve the body of being the designated site for oppression and instead let technology take the brunt,” Genoble says.
Genoble spent her summer working on numerous mixed media pieces, from etched computer screens to silicone molds of body parts. She says she especially focused on the idea of the “unbecoming process,” and how a person’s relationship with their physical form can be broken down and rearranged in unfamiliar ways.
The centerpiece of the exhibition, titled “I Think I Broke a Nail,” is a moving sculpture that portrays synthetic hands with razor blades attached to the fingertips spinning in a chained and endless rotation. The rotating blades scratch the surface of a television screen.
“I really felt an alliance with that piece,” Genoble says. “It’s a good way to express emotions that you can’t tell people.”
Genoble says she enjoys being physical with her artwork. She finds value in using familiar objects in unfamiliar ways to make viewers uncomfortable and encourage them to think beyond their previous understandings of their own bodies.
“Working with sculpture, I can really embrace using random or familiar materials, which can make people question what they are looking at and why,” Genoble says.