Denise Pelletier

trans.con.figurations, Palazzo Mora, 2024

trans.con.figurations explores the internal terrain of my body, captured in PET/CT scans taken before and after surgery for a destructive spine tumor. PET/CT, a medical imaging tool that reveals both the structure and the metabolic function of tissues and organs - how they are functioning in real time - can be read as hybrid 3D models in constant motion on the computer screen. In this form, they slip in and out of a recognizable realm, unidentifiable as separate organs but as interacting metabolic entities, unmoored, and collapsing their borders. Transformed into 3D files for machining, then reimagined and manipulated in wet clay, they freeze into beautiful, curious, grotesque forms. Shown in Palazzo Mora, a 16th century Venetian palace, these strange, assertive forms hover and anchor the dark room, activating a dialogue with the building’s time worn beams and unseen places, its architectural “bones and guts.” A projection nearby creates a somatic cinematic experience, holding space for the possibility that something can be what it’s not.