The Centaur at ATA Window Gallery (2024)

Throughout November, the Centaur will occupy the ATA Window Space. The Centaur is a moveable mound; the movement made with the piece is akin to a mullet — with business in the front and a party in the back — except in this case, the lower half of the body moves while the upper half sleeps.

The Centaur was initially a pandemic invention. When I found it impossible to exist in public space, I created a body position that made it feel possible — where instead of standing or talking, I could also be draped and moving throughout the world with only my feet. Since this project started, I have considered how we are codified as humans. We comport ourselves through acceptable behaviors that, in turn, delimit our expression. Sometimes, my art feels like a plea to expand how we interact socially.

“When we acknowledge that a significant portion of our lives is fabricated by the brain, we begin to understand ourselves as more than crude blocks of observation and rationality. Rather, we are sculpted by our environments, our minds and bodies pressed into them like clay or plasticine.”

— K Allado-McDowell 

Audio by Adam Sohn

Video by Morgann Nieto and Guilherme Veloso

Photos by Anne McGuire