MIND, BODY AND ART
The Resilience And Vulnerability Of The Human Body

As animals who walk on two legs instead of four, our heads have vertical superiority to our bodies. It seems fitting; as the most highly-evolved, upright-walking creatures, we are distinguished from our evolutionary predecessors by our superior mental capacityÑcapable of technology, science, and medicine.

But in spite of using brainpower to understand our bodies in ways no other animal can, we cannot use our brains to control our biology: the body cannot be governed by reason.

We can diet and exercise, but we can't control our metabolisms; we tell ourselves not to be afraid, yet our heart rate increases anyway; we damage our bodies to conform with a constructed standard of beauty.

Healthy couples can try to conceive for years with no success; arms and legs can be amputated and their phantom presence still felt; a tumor can plague major organs without causing noticeable pain.

We can reason beyond biology, but we can't override it.

This limit to our powers of reason is both a testament to the body's resilience and a concession of its vulnerability: resilience, when instinct sends us into survival mode upon deprivation of basic needs; vulnerability, when we can map the entire human genome but can't cure cancer, AIDS or even the common cold.

Indeed, the advanced mental capacity that allows us to understand our bodiesÑto perform surgeries and analyze athletic performancesÑis also what makes us aware of how much we can't control.

But the gap between understanding and controlÑbetween logic and biology, reason and instinctÑleaves room for negotiation between the two sides: a potential for communication, a space for creation.

For thousands of years, society has approached the human body aesthetically, as well as intellectually and physically. In painting, sculpture, music, dance and theater, the body is explored as an instrument of expression, regardless of its chemical make-up, life expectancy or physical prowess.

As advancements in science, medicine and technology give us more insight into our resilience and just as much warning of our vulnerability, art offers us a way to grapple with that awarenessÑto use our superior human faculties, if not to control the body, then to celebrate it.