Humanwear
Marcela Baltarete
Marcela Baltarete works predominantly with 3D modelling and animation softwares as well as film editing to create animation short films while incorporating VR and AR in the process of developing their work. At first they started exploring the human body's transformative capabilities through the manipulation of fabrics and materials with the help of sculptural laser cutting techniques. Later they moved entirely onto the digital space after becoming uncomfortable working with the physical human body, a discomfort that was triggered by their own feelings of gender dysphoria, depression and chronic illness, all of which inform the narrative of their current work.
Their work has been highlighted alongside digital artists and designers in the initial issue of Version Magazine as well as being featured by Grazia UK.
Located at the intersection of postgenderism and transhumanism, Marcela’s work is a personal journey informed by the constraints of their own body and mind. They attempt to explore and question their idea of gender, health and fitness through digital re-embodiment and re-worlding.
Marcela creates instinctive and poetic 3D rendered animations with variations of themselves as enhanced, self made and evolved digital beings – for the purpose of taking distance from their body and their experience of depression, gender dysphoria and chronic illness in order to achieve introspection and relief. They investigate their longing for a gender- ambiguous but fit and masculine appearance while also questioning whether this desire for a masculine aesthetic is the result of a genuine identification or a byproduct of internalised misogyny.
They approach their work in a therapeutic way, while portraying the idea of rejection and acceptance of certain anatomical parts through animated extrusions that signify their own body’s discomfort but also investigate the possibility for self-acceptance and reconciliation of mind and body.
By creating this virtual re-worlding and re-embodiment they are also looking to challenge the need for physical presence in a world that is increasingly experienced online.
