Johannes Bosisio

Donna Haraway's "Cyborg Manifesto", which has cult status and significantly influenced feminist theory, is an important component of my work and my interest in potential Cyborgs in our society. Using the example of sophisticated technology aka Cyborgs, Haraway describes her Utopia of a postmodern society and breaking down conventional ways of thinking and existing boundaries. She uses the idea of an cyborg, an entity detached from human qualities such as genders and subsequently systems of duality, to rethink the meaning and boundaries of gender, race and capitalism, as the cyborg exceeds binary logic. 

The Cyborg is not only a mechanical version of the human being, but a dynamic transgression of human boundaries. Figure and ground, mind and body, biology and technology are continually influencing and modifying each other. Furthermore the „Cyborg Manifesto“ allows spiritual explorations because the artificial intelligence is liberated from the reality humans are tied into. 

In my paintings I am trying to explore the relationships between mankind and machine and the transgressions of dualism such as the separation of: figure and ground, body and mind, material and Immaterial, organic and inorganic, animals and machines. I fuse binary forms in order to create hybrids

I work with carbody parts because I see the automobile as an allegory for the connections between mankind, technology, culture, politics and economics. Steel and chrome, in fact, are materials with a perfect smooth and shiny texture that embody our modernity to the fullest. The surfaces however show cracks and scratches. They look as if they have been deformed and destroyed in a dreadful accident. Like the smashed cars in Ballard’s setting. The Series shapeshifter  is about an intimate and at the same time erotic perception of smooth and mirrored metal surfaces. It is about the parallels between metal surfaces and fetish, and how obsessive they can be.