Isabella Covert

Metabolic Growth, 2024
Oil on canvas
30" x40"

Referencing the genre of bodily horror, and its nature of undoing the limits of a human subject's bodily autonomy and ownership, my work relates the disconcerting realization of the body as a sum of parts to the mental complexities regarding ongoing systemic control over reproducing bodies. Communicating the interplay of excess political control and gendered dynamics, the vibrant color palettes ooze with the visceral nature of fleshy masses that combine the rawness of muscle and meat with lived experiences of women. Employing mediums such as painting, sculpture, installation, and performance, my work attempts to dismantle the entanglement of self in relation to the regulating authority overwhelmingly present in the Information Age. Bodily autonomy is lost in a cacophonous void that builds and distorts our perception of self. Through the relationship of body horror and structural tendencies, my work dissects the connection between the inhuman, speculative horror, and social relations that impact the body and mind. By dismembering and rearranging, these works reframe the reproducing body as a psychological sum of parts, instead of merely a vessel.

Through interdisciplinary work, I delve into themes of subverting socio-political structures, challenging the confines of womanhood, and activist work that transcends the corporeal, disrupts our surroundings, and critiques the systems in place. Creating a space of communication, my work considers the way in which people that can become pregnant disjointedly manage and conduct life, and how to reshape agency.

Referencing the continuing history of the connotations between women's emotional responses and hysteria, my work serves as a current zeitgeist, showing personal narratives that speak to the greater collective.

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View more of Isabella's work:

https://isabellacovert46.wixsite.com/website
@isacov.art