Isabella Catenaro: many are called, few are chosen

Isabella Catenaro is an emerging artist based in Meanjin [Brisbane], Australia. Through performance and installation, Fae confronts the pseudo-dilemma presented by demarcated orders: piety versus sin, feminine versus masculine, purity versus abjection. In many are called, few are chosen, Catenaro characterises Khôra through representations of the queer body as Christ forsaken: inaugurating transgressive and transcendental narratives that conflate sacraments with the profane. Ritualistic anointing and playful purification are enacted through the choreography of contamination and communion. In Catenaro’s work, bread and wine is exchanged for salt as the body and aromatic oil as the blood. This queer Eucharist exists in vicissitude as a scandalous ruin where a forgiven sinner dwells: abominated in salvation, rejoicing and toiling in glorious damnation.