Statement / Bio
Paulina Batista’s practice examines the oscillations between body and machine, connecting different nodes of research and medium from photography to sculpture, video, and frequencies. She investigates how technological advancements allow unprecedented access to the inner workings of the flesh, and the ensuing trans-humanist hopes of the convergence between technology and the body. Stumbling Toward Oblivion is one of her earliest photographic works where she began to remove the subjects from the city and surroundings and taking them to nearby woodlands of California in the middle of the night. Alone and removed from the cityscape at night, with only a flashlight in hand, it was the shared experience of adventure and trust which created signification. The images then become documentations of this shared experience and dreamlike state induced by the stillness and darkness enveloping us. The work was featured both in Veja online and RG Magazine in Brazil in 2013
2019 RU Alum Pauline Batista was recently featured at The Center Annual is Houston Center for Photography’s yearly group exhibition. Exhibition venues include the University of Oxford, Oxford, London Gallery West, Harrow, Cor Viva Cor, Oxford University Press, Oxford, The Koppel Project, London, UK (Celeste Prize by Fatos Ustek (photography finalist), Oxo Tower Bargehouse, London, London Design Festival, London, Goldsmiths Degree Show, London, Neither Nor, Terra Arte, Aylesbury, The Old Waterworks, Southend-on- sea, Embassy of Brazil, London, Westwerk, Hamburg, DE. Batista’s work has been profiled in publications such as Veja and RG as well as Elephant Art Magazine, featuring her as an “artist to watch” in 2017.
Artist website: www.paulinebatista.com