Carolyn Craig: Mechanisms for Leaning

Carolyn Craig’s work reflects her research within the coded construction of subjectivity and relates this to ideas of the performance of self and the sustenance of gendered typologies. These investigations focus on inscriptive performance as an active form of power and social control. Craig deconstructs particular gestural actions which she has identified as demonstrating specific power differentials by utilizing her own body as the site of absurd action .The performative traces of these gestures is recorded and inverted to query the basis of our everyday selves. The work asks the viewer to consider if these actions are based on biology or the privileging of entrenched systems of power.

Text pieces infiltrate the performative traces and objects as a counterpoint to absurdity and as a navigational device into the subjective position. The materiality of printmaking, drawing and photography are critical to Craig’s attempt to rewrite her subjective position. Each of these mediums contains the trace of self and the potential for active play within processes of inscription, recording, erasing and repeating.