Here, Rad Hourani captures the body in its purest form, almost primitive. The rendering is sculptural in nature yet expressed via the medium of photography. Its purpose is to reflect on the nuanced codification of our relations to the human physique and perceptions of erotic sensations. By exposing nude photographs of varying body language, the intention blurs the lines of form and erotism. By simply appreciating the frame, it attempts to abolish the taboo notion of genitalia. Through artistic principles, the result opens a dialogue around the tension between these dynamics.

The compositions, printed on wooden structures, articulate shapes in their full freedom, stripped physically and metaphorically of all the implications of social signifiers. Bringing awareness to the concept of sex, the images evoke an infringement on our primal security through the coding of negative connotations. In noticing our habitual, flawed attention to these identifiable traits, Rad Hourani aims to address the media's influence on our preconditioned identification with romance versus the potential of sexual empowerment.

This series also challenges the religious, institutional, and governmental claims of control over bodies. It points out the constant requirement that consenting adults publicly disclose their sexual preferences. In considering imposed social conditioning, it questions the confinement of our intimate freedom. The work empowers a reclamation of our own physical explorations, allowing oneself to decipher and liberate sexuality.

The artwork explores the disconnection and shameful interpretations of flesh, which are prevalent in society, to reflect on the boundaries of the self and its environment. It initiates observations on intimacy for the purpose of supporting equitable wellbeing as a creative process. This further sheds light on a more normalized dimension of human anatomy. Art issues an objectified and universal figure, proposing a deeper discovery of our relationship to the world within us.

© 2018 RAD HOURANI

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