KNEES was an exhibition that displayed the findings of research MC conducted during the spring and summer of 2024. She received the Luther Rice Undergraduate Research Fellowship from George Washington University in order to discover how the experiences of a collegiate athlete can be defined. After conducting a series of interviews and experiments in performance, she found that one of the only universal experiences among athletes was their connection with their bodies. As athletes, these individuals move through the world with a heightened awareness of their physical being and its conditions.

The final body of work consisted of 11 40” x 40” prints and an installation. The prints are photographs MC took of college athlete’s knees cropped and enlarged. They examine how the physical world affects the body, and how those effects reflect time’s impact on bodies, both internally and externally. Cartilage degradation occurs at higher rates for athletes and others who use their bodies similarly, altering how these individuals experience time. To look into this idea further, MC built an 8’ x 12’ wall in the gallery and repeatedly hit it with a dumbbell. A video (with sound) of MC damaging the wall played in an adjacent gallery, projected above a dumbbell.