Nakita Shelley; a Snow College alumni artist who creates work encompassing body, landscape, and women’s issues, Mind of Body explores themes of artistic intimacy and the abstraction and interpretation of the body. The collection of work was created in her month-long Snow College residency consisting of drawings, intaglio prints, and video, all made in a semi-public space open to passersby. Through dynamic experimentation with abstraction and representation, Shelley drew figures that kneel, stretch, drag, and intertwine in ways that fragment while also reinforcing their bodies. The works are deliberately ambiguous; as there is no fixed definition for interpretation for the audience. Like looking at clouds in the sky, what you see will likely be seen differently by another.
From the abstracted subject matter of the body to the performative nature of the creation of the work itself, this work challenges the distinction between artist and art, body, and form. The weight of fleshy forms contrasts with the flatly rendered figures layered with abstraction. The uneasy dissolution of boundaries between artist and audience, in contrast to other work that Shelley previously made in isolation over the past year, she explains, “It was difficult at times transitioning from such seclusion in my creative process to long-term uncertain watching eyes.”
Through drawing, prints, and video, Body of Mind expands on the intimate reflections of body and artistic performance. Shelley hopes the vulnerability she offered the viewers during the creation of the work will foster a greater understanding between the audience and the art.
