Hysteria

In this first development of a broader series entitled “Hysteria”, Cooper & Gorfer test the boundaries between painting, collage and photography, assembling physically collaged colossal female bodies in different states of transformation. The artists construct a mythological dynasty inspired by the transformative powers of immortal goddesses – a fictitious tribe of women, birthed from a library of female bodies.

The initial idea for constructing the figures came from using the surrealist game Cadavre Exquis, where the artists created a shared image by dividing it into two concealed halves. The emerging bodies are never entirely their own, but share limbs that belong to several women simultaneously. Exploding from the frames that contain them, the figures become giants of monumental proportions.