Skin Prints
August 12, 2024 - November 8, 2024
In 2014, riel Sturchio (they/she) started Skin Prints to offer a collaborative therapeutic release for bodily trauma through consensual touch. Skin Prints create archival prints of the body using sticky material, documenting the skin's surface. This work flattens the skin's history, showing both entropy and resilience. Sturchio is interested in creating a taxonomy of skin to build shared understanding. this work reflects on mortality and a new way of perceiving the unifying factors of humanity.
The imprints, shown in black and white, anonymize the bodies, creating an archive of time and skin without the immediate context of identity. Sturchio explores anonymity as both a safety asset and a point of contention. Enlarged imprints highlight textures, hair patterns, folds, scars, compiling a collective record of the human body as vastly different and intimately alike.
riel Sturchio has taught photography at several institutions including The University of Texas at Austin and Texas State University. Currently, they are a Visiting Professor at the University of Iowa. As a queer, chronically ill artist, Sturchio critiques societal norms of beauty, ability, and gender identity. Their work explores themes of bodily disorientation and awareness, using their experiences with chronic illness to inform their artistic practice.
To view more of their work, please visit rielsturchio.com
riel Sturchio, Susan Butler, Archival Inkjet Print, 2021, 20" x 26"
