Mitchell Moreno | BODY COPY

Mitchell Moreno

Photofusion presents the first UK exhibition of BODY COPY, a photo-text series by Mitchell Moreno exploring the performance of masculinities through the discourse of online dating.

Moving beyond the psychotherapeutic, BODY COPY considers how queer masculinities are highly codified constructions rooted in material and digital cultures. Sometimes these construc- tions playfully destabilise the cis-heteropatriarchy. Often, however, they reinforce it, betraying problematic attitudes towards class, race, gender and (dis)ability. This is particularly clear in a conceptual text piece in the exhibition, in which the artist lines the walls with a thousand hook- up adverts. Arranged alphabetically, the piece juxtaposes the unsettling, the banal and the humorous.

Mitchell Moreno was born in Leicester, UK. After studying at Cambridge University and the Royal Academy of Music, they worked for over a decade in theatre, opera, and circus as a performer and director. Following a hiatus from work due to a mental health crisis, they began exploring photography - in which they are self-taught - in 2017.

Their work-which considers the performance of gender, art-as-therapy, and kinship from a queer working-class perspective- has been exhibited internationally. Their series BODY COPY has recently been shown at Ballarat International Foto Biennale (Australia), Copenhagen Photo Festival (Denmark), Singapore International Photography Festival (Singapore), Encontros da Imagem (Portugal), and Photo LA (USA).

Moreno supports themself by working as a builder and decorator, and advocates for LGBTQIA+ and mental health issues.