Inside Out

Our bodies are containers which house our anatomy, alongside the stored memories of who we are and where we came from. Their forms betray a sculptural expression of each individual’s inheritance. While we attempt to craft ourselves into unique beings, separated from familial features and traits, our genetic and biological characteristics remain outside of our control, sewn inside us at the very moment of conception.

Paloma Tendero’s work explores physical and psychological relationships that spring from this inherited determinism. In the Inside Out series she looks at the influence of genetic disease, passed along family lines, which renders the body vulnerable to an unrequested destiny. By setting an imagined internal body alongside its real external form, Tendero weaves in issues arising out of the emotional struggle between such biological determinism and the countering effect of self-will.