The Body Politic

31st January – 14th March 2019

Chloe Cooper. Rachel Fallon. Núria Güell. Jesse Jones. Eimear Walshe. Emma Wolf-Haugh.

“Power is not an institution, and not a structure; neither is it a certain strength we are endowed with; it is the name that one attributes to a complex strategical situation in a particular society.” Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality (1976)

The Body Politic is a medieval metaphor which likens a nation to one autonomous being. The head of this body governs with divine authority, drawing strength and power from the masses below. Catalyst Arts presents a contemporary response to this concept in our exhibition The Body Politic.

Each of the works presented address different struggles against status, laws and narratives prescribed on our individual and collective bodies. Together they offer tools with which we may change the status quo.