CRANBROOK ACADEMY OF ART GRADUATE DREGREE EXHIBITION 2025  
GRADUATES \\ WORK \\ ABOUT \\
CASEY
WHEELER
DEPARTMENT
FIBER

ORIGIN
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 I find myself fascinated by the concept of selfhood, of having a body and a self (a body that is a self and a self that is a body) that exist in a world filled with and made up of bodies and selves, and all of the connections and disconnections within and without that complicate and transform this very same concept of selfhood and embodiment. I am trapped in this absurd curiosity. This curious absurdity.

My work is an interdisciplinary network of sculpture, installation, and performance revolving around my experience as a neurodivergent, queer and trans person. The work itself is built up in cellular blocks, like a systematic fragmentation and rebuilding of self or individual, piece by piece, acknowledging the agency of the fragments through a critical mimesis of the systems that would strip their agency through the same process—examining these systems that would manufacture the alienation, isolation, or estrangement of the neuroqueer subject and finding community and reparation in the resulting fragments. This mode of working finds its roots in my research into the intersection of queer/ transness and neurodivergence, specifically autism, though extending more broadly into the field of disability and crip theory.

The interplay of anatomy and abstraction throughout this body of work in the construction, fragmentation, and mediation of bodies theorizes the absurdity of embodiment and selfhood, where selfhood is a constantly changing construction that reflects and relates to the culture, and where the body becomes a site for social relation and resistance.



Untitled (return)
2024, performance with my/our wooden body (Log) upon its return, duration 13.5 hrs 
Prostheses
2024, performative prosthetic installation consisting of crochet thread, D-rings, chains, found bedsheets, found mirror 
Creation and Modification I
2024, video installation with audio 
Practicing Practicing
2024, cotton crochet thread, mirror shards