Out of BODY

British-French multimedia artist Charlotte Colbert's surreal approach to untangling embodiment thrives amid the tension between the digital and physical worlds.

- Words MICAH PHUA

What does it mean to possess a body—to live life as an embodied individual? While that question has become infinitely harder to parse in the last few years (thank you, social media; thank you, generative AI) there are some, like British-French filmmaker and multimedia artist Charlotte Colbert, who refuse to back down from the challenge.

Colbert, partner to lobster-loving artist Philip Colbert, has made it her life’s work to seek enlightenment in the physical, mental and emotional spaces surrounding notions of bodily consciousness and perception. Dubbed ‘a natural-born magician’ by The London Standard, her art—from her work in film to her ceramic homeware and monumental sculptural installations—feels as if it were conjured from the ether, inspired by the very best components of an overly active imagination.

“I’m an overthinker and an over-feeler,” she confesses. “I guess my practice is a buoy that allows me not to drown and explore hidden nooks of mind and world with purpose. All the mediums I work within are connected by my fascination with story and narrative—the realities and fictions that define us and make us who we are.”

On this front, Colbert has a foot firmly planted in both worlds, fully cognisant of the fact that, beyond the veil of physical phenomena, lies a universe fuelled by the fantastical and the surreal. “We live in imagined structures,” she remarks. “Everything human-made around us was invented by someone before, from our computers and cups to our political systems. Everything we imagine today becomes our reality tomorrow. In that sense we are all magicians. Our imaginations can shape the world, especially when the imagining is collective.”