The latest Process post features the vibrant work of VCFA MFA candidate Samantha Flora. Sam has been engaged in exploring notions of body image, depression and recovery, love, sex, and radical feminism. Sam’s highly personal and politicized work stands defiant in the face of many ugly aspects of contemporary society.

The Body Project: Looking at the Body as Topographical Form

The Body Project was a series of 16 images where I produced a purely graphic analysis of the human body by looking at it similarly to how topographical maps are created. By defining the high, mid, and low points of the body I was able to illustrate the bodies in a very objective manner, stripping them of the subjective experience of the individual. 

By pairing this with a personal statement from the individual describing their own relationship within their body I was able to draw a distinction between the objective and subjective experiences of being human and explore intersubjectivity as it relates to embodiment.

The following pieces were put together using a series of multiple images digitally collaged together. The images include photographs, screenshots and pictures taken with a phone and later altered. It is meant to look glitchy, but also in a controlled manner. (Parts of it were produced by glitche app) 

It is meant to echo the sentiment of heartbreak where everything is going wrong and there is a feeling of being out of control while having the impulse to try and control it. They are personal pieces and expressions more than anything else and were made after a recent breakup. The images also take inside jokes and memories and distorts them into negative experiences, which is representative of the psychological distortions that happen post-breakup where happy memories become bad memories.

Fat Roll Alphabet

This alphabet was produced by manipulating loose skin caused by weight loss into letters and taking pictures of them, cropping and cutting them into shape. It is sometimes seen as a cruel act, but it is meant to be a defiant act. To accept myself and my body as they are and to display it without shame — defiant self-acceptance. Making something tangible out of my insecurities.

I’m Sure These Words Taste Like Ash In Your Mouth

After a breakup my ex wrote these words in regards to how he felt I would feel after reading that if we got back together he wouldn’t hold any lovers I had between us breaking up and getting back together against me and he would hope that I would do the same. I created this by using a series of hand-cut stencils and an ink out of printouts of burned text messages and mixing the ash with my own spit. 

Body Alphabet

This is an alphabet made using my body. It has the same premise as the FatRoll alphabet. Making something tangible out of my own insecurities — defiant self-acceptance.

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