‘Support Structures’ Explores the Precarity of the Human Body

My initial response upon walking into the 18-artist group show ‘Support Structures’ is to seek out the human body which so much of the work appears to have been moulded to fit. Berenice Olmedo’s Isabela (2020), for instance, suggests the lower half of a ballet dancer: a pair of upright legs, formed from various elements of medical apparatus, at the end of which sit two pink satin ballet shoes en pointe. The work’s lack of a corporeal form, however, is the key to ‘Support Structures’, which sets out to explore the precarity of the human body. 

Here, the physical body is pushed towards, and often beyond, its limits. Louise Bourgeois’s etching Untitled (Tree with Red Crutch) (1998), in which the work’s eponymous crutch props up a tree with a broken branch, suggests that nobody can be self-supporting forever; that to need help isn’t a sign of weakness but, rather, a collective necessity. If you examine them for long enough, Alina Sapocznikow’s gelatin silver prints of ambiguous gum-like material, ‘Foto Rzeźby’ (Photo Sculptures, 1971–2007), also begin to take on the form of body parts. Her surreal images of matter in between states recall Salvador Dali’s melting figures, such as those in Daddy Longlegs of the Evening Hope (1940).

Descending to the gallery’s basement level engenders a change in atmosphere – one that seemingly gestures to the future. Here, metallic, steampunk-style works, such as Geumhyung Jeong’s Small Upgrade (2019), creates the feeling of a scientific laboratory. Jeong’s four-screen video installation shows the construction and operation of what appears to be a crude cyborg – mannequin limbs attached to wheels – that moves like a strange, remote-control car. 

Other sculptures seem to draw on the kind of bodily modification often found in science-fiction films, such as David Cronenberg’s Videodrome (1983). When confronted with Rafal Zajko’s ceramic wall-mounted relief Monstrance (Pleasure Principle) (2023) or works from Maren Karlson’s oil painting series ‘Viscera’ (2023), it’s impossible not to wonder what the future holds for the human body: will these last pieces of skin be all that’s left of us; is flesh and blood destined to be replaced by wires and chrome?

‘Support Structures’ is not entirely coherent – some of the artworks feel incongruous, particularly between the two floors of the gallery – but there are complementary dialogues. For instance, Ivana Bašić’s mixed-media sculpture I Will Lull and Rock My Ailing Light in My Marble Arms #1 (2017), which looks like a warped version of a ballerina en pointe, either emerging from or supported by a metallic shell, appears to be in direct conversation with Olmedo’s Isabela. 

While ‘Support Structures’ provides no concrete answers to how our bodies might look in the future – nor how emergent technology, such as AI, may further impact them – it certainly suggests that humanity will always need some form of assistance. Despite its elaborate construction, I Will Lull and Rock My Ailing Light in My Marble Arms #1 is still propped up by a metal rod. Similarly, for all her apparent skill and endurance, Isabela is held en pointe by barely visible strings. Without support, these works imply, none of us can truly stand on our own forever – and that’s okay.

‘Support Structures’ is at Gathering, London, until 23 July 

^{Main image: ‘Support Structures’, 2023, installation view. Courtesy: © Gathering, London; photograph: Grey Hutton}