Michelle Alexander’s Work Asks What It Means to Participate

Michelle Alexander put her own body on the floor and let people walk across it. That was the starting point of “My Body / Your Object,” which closed last month at Matthew Heberlein Contemporary in Chicago. Viewers stepped over carpets printed with her skin, often without realizing what they were doing. Others paused. That moment—where action meets hesitation—is where her work hits hardest.

The show opened up questions about consent, self-worth, and complicity. Alexander used her own image as both subject and object, asking what it means to give someone permission to walk all over you and whether that permission shifts the power dynamic. The discomfort was not spectacle. It was there to make people aware of their own bodies, their choices, and the weight of their participation or avoidance.

We spoke with Alexander about “My Body / Your Object” and how control, discomfort, and participation thread through her practice.

You’ve said many of your projects begin in dreams. When that happens, how do you know it’s something to follow?

Michelle Alexander: I find myself walking through installations or exhibitions in my dreams. It scares me sometimes how my mind is constantly trying to put the pieces together and build these worlds for a viewer to enter. Deciding to bring them to life really comes down to how real the dreams feel and analyzing my mood when I wake up. If I can’t stop thinking about it and obsessing and questioning the experience, then it is something that needs to be made. Something comes over me and it needs to be realized. If I have the same dream more than once that’s also a good sign that it will make its way out of the dream world and into our world. 

Michelle Alexander on putting her body on the floor

In “My Body / Your Object,” viewers walked on images of your own body, sometimes without realizing it. How did using your own body as a surface shift the way you thought about objectification?

Michelle Alexander: Using my body as the subject and the object pushed me to think about objectification in new ways. It made me think about self worth and self value. It made me think about unwanted touch and viewing happening alongside wanted touch and a longing gaze. Through many conversations about the work I really started to question the notion of people pleasing and giving someone permission to walk all over you and if that can shift the power dynamic. It also made me think a lot about consent. Giving the audience consent to walk on the body, the work objectifies the pieces while also thinking about consent coming from the viewer. Are they a willing participant or unwilling and what does that mean? How does consenting to objectification come into play? Are they being tricked into objectifying and does that in turn lead to me objectifying the viewer? 

Do you think the discomfort people felt was the kind you were hoping for?

Michelle Alexander: I had hoped for people to be aware of their own bodies in the space. I struggle with making people feel discomfort in relation to my work. I hope they confront it and have to reckon with themselves, their bodies, the weight of their participation or avoidance.

Inside the artist’s studio process 

You’ve described your process as immersive and sometimes destructive. What does destruction look like in your studio? 

Michelle Alexander: I think in the studio the destruction is a reclamation. It is the process in creating which can be devaluing materials which I believe lends itself to a transfer of an essence out of my body and into the work. The destruction is maybe like a controlled chaos. I go into it with an intention, a starting point and end goal, but sometimes I don’t make it there. I have to give over to the process and chaos and allow that to guide me. 

There’s a sense of confrontation in your work, but it’s not loud. It creeps up. How intentional is that pacing?

Michelle Alexander: This is something I have been exploring: when to scream and when to whisper. And observing how people move through a space and interact with a work. I am always hoping for people to be aware of their bodies in the space. Of the collective confusion and struggle of fighting yourself. 

Michelle Alexander on feeling out of place—and using it

You’ve said you still feel like an imposter in the art world. Does that feeling shape how you share your work?

Michelle Alexander: Unintentionally, probably. I think feeling like an imposter pushes me to create unconventional work and environments. Putting work on the floor, possibly devaluing it before anyone else can, infusing that into the meaning. Thinking about “invisible objects” and how they can stand in for the self maybe represents feeling uncomfortable, like you don’t fit it, like you are on view and fully invisible, out of place. 

You’ve said your work doesn’t give answers, just more questions. What’s a question that’s stayed with you through some pieces?

Michelle Alexander: I am constantly thinking about the body as a possession, a trophy, an object and what that means. How you can be “owned,” give someone else your power and what that means. I am constantly questioning what it means to fight with the self, to feel trapped in your own skin, the desire to get away from yourself and reckon with always being the only one there for yourself. Questioning our fragility and strength, the complexity of being a human. The pressure of growing, the pressure of traditional media and social media and how it has fucked up the sense of self. Questioning what it means to be a woman. 

Featured image by Michelle Alexander, My Body / Your Object. Photo courtesy of Jonas Müller-Ahlheim.