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Authors | Patrick J. Reed

Patrick J. Reed is an artist working the fields of printmaking, papermaking, and photography, with specific interests in apocalyptic perspectives, corporeal transgression, and virulent kitsch. He is currently a researcher at the University of Iowa Digital Studio for Public Arts and Humanities. During the 2014−2015 academic year, Patrick will be in Munich as a Fulbright Scholar at the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, where he will be conducting research on sixteenth-century German woodcut prints depicting environmental catastrophe.

Articles on Amodern by Patrick J. Reed

FEMINIST FIGURE GIRL

A Photographic Dialogue

This photo-essay was produced as part of an autoethnographic research project humorously entitled Feminist Figure Girl: Look Hot While You Fight the Patriarchy. From 2010 to 2011, Lianne McTavish studied what it felt like to train for and participate in a figure/bodybuilding competition, working with designer and photographer Patrick J. Reed to represent the process. The resulting photographs highlight scenes of tedious labour, vulnerability, and imperfection, intervening in the standard portrayals of competitive bodybuilding as the masterful domination of flesh. The pictures furthermore reveal the collaborative nature of bodybuilding practices, a point reinforced by the dual voices in the accompanying captions.