Feminism in art of artists born on or after 1970
SANDRINE SCHAEFER
ADVENTURES IN BEING (SMALL)
Adventures in Being (small) is a project that addresses how humans fit into various environments,
both corporally and conceptually.
After mindfully losing a significant amount of weight in 2009, I began exploring found spaces that
I could not previously fit. What started as a playful exercise in measuring my transformed
body has evolved into a comprehensive series of site-sensitive performance art installations titled,
Adventures in Being (small).
Fascinated by the shared human experience of understanding one's body within various environments,
I have fit myself into
hundreds of spaces across the planet. I have traveled across the US, to Shanghai China,
and will be implementing this work throughout Mexico in early 2012. I have pushed my body through fences,
underneath benches, inside bike racks, piles of abandoned tires, coin-operated children's rides, etc. I've also explored
natural environments like salt flats, crevices between stones, and trees. I may seek out a place,
but never a space. I stay inside of each space as long as my body or the space will allow,
and I leave the space as I found it. This project is designed in such a way that it is often
created and witnessed by chance and my body is often observed in stillness. My goal with this
work is to create an unmediated living image that challenges how people may consider their surroundings.
After 2 years of being invested in this project,
I have seen it develop as a cultural survey in how the body's gesture informs
the physicality and psychology of a space. Spaces assume certain truths.
Environments are affected by the perceptions that humans assign to them.
Many of these perceptions are linked to acceptable interactions with space based on ideas about gender.
Through this work I have confronted ways in which awareness of an environment changes when my female
body interacts with a space in an unexpected way.
Even in the 21st century, discomfort arises when a female
body is present in some environments. I believe that this is a
conditioned response that I aim to challenge with this work.
Understanding space and the possibilities for the bodies that inhabit them is an important practice.
When we engage in the act of re-imagining our environment, we acknowledge it's infinite potential.
When we re-imagine what our bodies are capable of, the seemingly impossible becomes possible.
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