This MFA thesis exhibition centers around the displacement, objectification, social politics, and psychological imprisonment of feminized / racialized bodies largely promoted by hegemonic representation practices, media, and cliches. Through photo-based processes, appropriation of popular media, and multiple depictions of disjointed bodies and objects of consumption, this work comments on the effects of media culture images and the demonization of the erotic life of feminized and racialized bodies. This body of work falls under the current queer and feminist agenda anchored on the personal struggles of the artist as a Queer Latinx immigrant mother in America. The work focuses primarily on the body as both a subject/object of the world, and as the very first condition for accessing society and its spaces of power/ subjugation. SOMA poses multiple visual scenarios exploring consciousness around the female body as a multidimensional concept, and the erotic experience as a tool for resignifying trauma.

Katy Beltran, an MFA in Photography graduate student will be giving two artist's talks about her current thesis exhibition ‘SOMA’, its most prominent motifs, and give more insight into her creative process and conceptual approaches. Themes such as the objectification of the body, disembodiment through image, and the modern fractionalization of the self will be explored in these conversations with the artist.