{"id":541850,"date":"2026-03-24T06:53:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T06:53:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/541850\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T06:53:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T06:53:15","slug":"exploring-how-much-art-technology-and-the-body-intersect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/541850\/","title":{"rendered":"Exploring How Much Art, Technology, and the Body Intersect"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Barbara<\/p>\n

Barbara Hammer, \u201cSanctus,\u201d 1990. 16mm film transferred to HD video. (Courtesy the artist\u2019s estate and Electronic Arts Intermix)<\/p>\n

On December 28, 1895, the public was introduced to two of the world\u2019s most groundbreaking innovations: films and X-ray technology. That both inventions debuted on the same day seems to suggest some sort of shared history, one that radically altered the ways in which we understand and depict the human body. This is exactly what the Queens-based Museum of the Moving Image<\/a> (MoMI) hopes to prove through Overexposed<\/a>, a new exhibition exploring how art, imaging technology, and medical science inform one another.<\/p>\n

Encompassing nearly 40 historical artifacts, films, and installation-based works, the show raises questions about normativity, objectivity, and care, as visualized through medical imaging tools and their appropriation by artists. Featured pieces incorporate everything from X-rays and ultrasounds to MRI and CT scans, offering unexpected and at times jarring representations of the body\u2014both on the inside and on the outside.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese optical devices changed the way that we think about the human body,\u201d Sonia Shechet Epstein, MoMI\u2019s curator of science and technology, tells My Modern Met. The exhibition, Shechet continues, probes beyond the surface of these devices, considering how \u201cour bodies\u2014and our sense of self\u2014are constantly being redefined by the tools that claim to see us most clearly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shechet has long been intrigued by what she calls the \u201cintersection of science and film,\u201d an interest that began when she encountered Sanctus<\/a>, an experimental work by the pioneering queer artist Barbara Hammer, about a decade ago. The film repurposes moving X-rays originally shot by Dr. James Sibley Watson in the 1950s, filtering skeletal structures through propulsive, technicolored filters, effects, and visuals. \u201cWhat\u2019s fascinating is that the subjects are performing for the X-ray camera\u2014shaving, putting on makeup, playing instruments,\u201d Shechet adds.<\/p>\n

Sanctus is at the heart of Overexposed, alongside modern and contemporary entries alike. The exhibition\u2019s earliest work, for instance, hails from 1975, showcasing X-rays of artist Ana Mendieta\u2019s head. As we confront these intimate, almost invasive images, Mendieta simultaneously performs standard speech tests, thus transforming herself into a medicalized subject. The show\u2019s most recent contribution, on the other hand, contends with hybridity, autonomy, and gender expression. Produced between 2025 and 2026, Opera Medica sees Agnes Questionmark performing surgery on part-human, part-sea creature sculptures of her own making.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving experienced being a patient undergoing gender-affirming surgery, Questionmark uses the tools of a surgeon to reclaim agency and stage surgery her way, while her sculptures reject normative ideals,\u201d Shechet says of the multimedia project.<\/p>\n

Aside from art, Overexposed also traces medical imaging through historical objects. This is partially out of necessity, considering that artists only recently gained access to X-ray and similar technologies. \u201cAs the decades progressed, artists had a hard time working with the technology because they couldn\u2019t get access to it. It was circumscribed to doctors,\u201d Shechet explains. \u201cStarting in the 1960s and 70s, artists found ways of gaining access. In the present day, we see many more artists working with medical imaging because they\u2019re able to go online and download their scans.\u201d<\/p>\n

These artifacts, though, effectively expand the exhibition\u2019s scope, contextualizing how medical imaging evolved throughout history. Highlights include early X-rays, a Lumi\u00e8re Brothers poster, an 1899 X-ray machine advertisement, Disney\u2019s 1929 The Skeleton Dance, and Life Magazine\u2019s 1956 beauty contest with X-rays. Taken together, Shechet hopes the curated selection won\u2019t just provoke thought, but also surprise and delight. She feels confident that a set of bootleg records from the Soviet Union will achieve just that.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis \u2018bone music\u2019 was made in the 50s and 60s, when vinyl was restricted as a way of censoring what citizens could listen to,\u201d she says. \u201cBootleggers found a way of using X-rays as a substitute for vinyl, inscribing it with the music they secretly loved. From Ukraine, I ordered The Beatles singing Taxman inscribed on a shoulder joint and Hey Jude on some ribs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Overexposed: Art, Technology, and the Body is currently on view at the Museum of the Moving Image through January 3, 2027.\n<\/p>\n

A new exhibition contends with the intersections of art, imaging technology, and medical science, gathering films that incorporate X-rays, MRI and CT scans, ultrasounds, and more.
\n\"\u201cMan<\/p>\n

\u201cMan Running,\u201d c. 1880, a chronophotograph by Etienne-Jules Marey. Marey (1830-1904) was a French scientist, physiologist, and pioneer of early photography. In this early experiment, a man wearing a black suit with a white stripe painted on it was recorded as he ran past the open shutter of Marey\u2019s camera.<\/p>\n

\"Installation<\/p>\n

Installation view of \u201cOverexposed: Art, Technology, and the Body\u201d at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, NY. (Photo: Thanassi Karageorgiou)<\/p>\n

\"Theo<\/p>\n

Theo Jean Cuthand and Ruth Cuthand, \u201cNeurotransmitting,\u201d 2021. Digital video. (Courtesy of the artists)<\/p>\n

\"Anna<\/p>\n

Anna Kipervaser, \u201cin ocula oculorum,\u201d 2021. Digital video. (Courtesy of the artist)<\/p>\n

\"\u201cMoving<\/p>\n

\u201cMoving X rays,\u201d c. 1938, prod. by Nicholas Kaufmann. Written and directed by Martin Rikli, technical advisor Robert Janker. Digital video. (Courtesy of the National Library of Medicine)<\/p>\n

\"Agnes<\/p>\n

Agnes Questionmark, \u201cOpera Medica,\u201d 2025, dir. by Giulia Mucci, still photography by Jason Baker. Three-channel video installation. (Courtesy of the artist)<\/p>\n

\"Shoe-fitting<\/p>\n

Shoe-fitting certificate, date unknown. Digital image. (Courtesy Oak Ridge Associated Universities, Museum of Radiation and Radioactivity)<\/p>\n

Overexposed is on view at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens through January 3, 2027.
\n\"V\u00e9r\u00e9na<\/p>\n

V\u00e9r\u00e9na Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor, \u201cDe Humani Corporis Fabrica,\u201c 2022. Multi-channel video installation. (Courtesy of the artists)<\/p>\n

\"Louis<\/p>\n

Louis and Auguste Lumi\u00e8re, \u201cFilm Lumi\u00e8re no. 831, Le Squelette Joyeux,\u201d 1897. HD video, black and white\/silent. (Copyright Institut Lumi\u00e8re)<\/p>\n

\"London<\/p>\n

London Television Service, \u201cThe Inside View,\u201d 1979, dir. by Edward Poulter. Digital video. (Courtesy of the Wellcome Collection)<\/p>\n

\"Donald<\/p>\n

Donald Rodney and Donald Rodney plc, \u201cAutoicon,\u201d 1997-2000. Software written by Adrian Ward, prod. by Geoff Cox and Mike Phillips, with contributions from Eddie Chambers, Richard Hylton, Angelika Koechert, Virginia Nimarkoh, Keith Piper, Gary Stewart, and Diane Symons. Interactive CD-ROM, length variable. (Courtesy of the artist\u2019s estate)<\/p>\n

\"Courtney<\/p>\n

Courtney Stephens, \u201cMixed Signals,\u201d 2018. 16mm film transferred to digital video. (Courtesy of the artist)<\/p>\n

\"Installation<\/p>\n

Installation view of \u201cOverexposed: Art, Technology, and the Body\u201d at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, NY. (Photo: Thanassi Karageorgiou)<\/p>\n

\"Barbara<\/p>\n

Barbara Hammer, \u201cSanctus,\u201d 1990. 16mm film transferred to HD video. (Courtesy the artist\u2019s estate and Electronic Arts Intermix)<\/p>\n

\"Liz<\/p>\n

Liz Magic Laser, \u201cMine,\u201d 2009. Produced via the da Vinci Robotic Surgical System with Dr. Mark Laser. Digital video. (Courtesy of the artist and Various Small Fires, Los Angeles, Dallas, and Seoul)<\/p>\n

Exhibition Information:
Overexposed: Art, Technology, and the Body
March 14, 2026\u2013January 3, 2027
Museum of the Moving Image
36-01 35 Ave, Astoria, NY 11106<\/p>\n

Museum of the Moving Image: Website<\/a> | Instagram<\/a><\/p>\n

My Modern Met granted permission to feature photos by Sutton Communications.
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