Antibody: The Naked Class Traitor

Antibody: The Naked Class Traitor is an interdisciplinary project that collects quotes by anti-capitalist activists, revolutionaries, poets, scientists, psychotherapists, storytellers, artists, and other writers and thinkers, both alive and dead. The intention of this project is to preserve their words and promote their works, by using two of the most popular tools of the Internet: memes and pornography. This is intended with love and appreciation for the words and ideas of the authors chosen for this project, and to encourage viewers to engage with and support their works.

All of the images in Antibody are originally photographs of the artist taken with an iPhone 7. The artist has committed to wearing no clothing, make-up, or jewellery (beyond her earrings), and to spend no money directly on the project. The images are edited on the iPhone using filters and screenshots, with some images created using as many as a dozen recursions. The quotes are then added in InDesign. This technique is meant to illustrate fractal self-similarity in nature—how the human body (and consciousness) mirrors and reflects the natural world—and one of the theses of the project: that art is what you have left when you remove the noise from reality.

Similarly, an aim of this project is to demonstrate the problems with and limitations of academic insularity, reductionism, and hyper-specialization by collaging ideas from across time, academic disciplines, and artistic forms to show how they mirror each other; to demonstrate the importance of context, of placing each piece in the greater puzzle, of examining both figure and ground.

Read the Artist Statement / guidelines for sharing these images

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Update (October 2020): This project is intended (at least partially) as a madcap and angsty way of recommending writers, scientists, mental health professionals, musicians, artists, and activists. Images are now linked to websites where you can purchase, read, or listen to the source (unless the artist mucked it up, WordPress has been confusing her tbh). The artist tried to avoid linking to Amazon, but sometimes had no choice. The artist also apologizes for any mistakes made in the text for these images; if you tell her about them, she will correct them.

Update (August 2021): It’s been a while since the artist added to this, so it’s officially retired (unless the artist changes her mind). Update (August 2021): It’s been a while since the artist added to this, so it’s officially retired (unless the artist changes her mind). This project should be considered snapshots of the artist’s mental state and reading interests from June – December 2020. It was therapeutic for the artist during a difficult period, and is an expression of the many conflicting and messy feelings and ideas stirring within her at the time. The artist notes that she is always reading, always learning, always engaging, and always (hopefully) evolving and maturing.

All Antibody Images