clips from Somatic Aliasing, 2021 by Kate Cooper

clips from Somatic Aliasing, 2021 by Kate Cooper


clips from Kate Cooper's Somatic Aliasing, 2021 01

I visited the New Museum Triennale, “Soft Water Hard Stone”. twice in 2021. I think it was what began to wake me, orient me to the outside world. My pandemic bubble (almost entirely constituted by my apartment and the screen I’m looking at now) was so familiar [and comfortable] that I receded.

I don’t find it easy to talk about art. or anything really.

There’s so much to cover between what’s happening in me, and where words can take over and I can. say. anything. I hear the studio audience in my head going: What?! They don’t think of me as the quiet person in the room. What I think is that all that talking I’m doing is me struggling to cross over -on time. fast enough for what I think the room wants. expects. welcomes.

There was a lot of audio throughout the Trienniale, and I really like it moving through me. Holding me to watch several video installations, which since we’re truthtelling here: has never been easy for me. I feel rushed in museum rooms too. And I never expect my companion to want to go that far into the work. sit that long.

“Created for the 2021 Triennial, “Somatic Aliasing” (2021), depicts simulated X-rays of bodily fragments in perpetual motion. The work evokes “stimming,” a term used to describe repetitive and stimulating movements or sounds, and reminds viewers of their own bodies as they respond to the images and sounds on screen. Cooper is interested in how, when used as a coping mechanism, stimming might be a strategy of refusal in a society marked by physical exhaustion.” — New Museum post on Instagram, where you can see some of the video: Login • Instagram

clips from Kate Cooper's Somatic Aliasing, 2021 06


for more of Kate Cooper’s work, visit

Kate Cooper’s website and Instagram: @katecooper2