In a current work I am struggling with now
I am trying to resolve a piece that I am working on now- a performance of myself I am thinking of titling "i am animal". The intention of the piece was to try to blur the boundaries between myself and nature, human and animal.
Within the space of a five hour session done in silence, I sewed and glued hand made paper of spices and leaves onto my body to change the shape of myself into something that could blend into the animal. I used the iconographic images of ears and horns, based out of the greek tradition of putting on these attributes to identify change.
Where I'm struggling to resolve this piece is not within the performance or the documentation, but in the presentation afterwards. I showed it with the photographs and a small art object reminiscent of what was on my body. Unfortunately the art piece was not intact as I literally had to rip it all off of me. It did not have enough punch and did not convey the same type of feeling that the photographs did. I think in order to resolve this I would like to recreate the full body art piece, able to be displayed in its entirety.
Within the space of a five hour session done in silence, I sewed and glued hand made paper of spices and leaves onto my body to change the shape of myself into something that could blend into the animal. I used the iconographic images of ears and horns, based out of the greek tradition of putting on these attributes to identify change.
Where I'm struggling to resolve this piece is not within the performance or the documentation, but in the presentation afterwards. I showed it with the photographs and a small art object reminiscent of what was on my body. Unfortunately the art piece was not intact as I literally had to rip it all off of me. It did not have enough punch and did not convey the same type of feeling that the photographs did. I think in order to resolve this I would like to recreate the full body art piece, able to be displayed in its entirety.
One artist I've been looking at who knows how to resolve work of this same subject matter-
Susan Clarahan
Such a beautiful piece, and really dealing with the subject matter in a way that I would love to be able to. She really get's the feeling fo that loss of boundary in this piece. Normally I hate the 1970's kaleidoscope effect, but in this I like the feeling it gives.
Also this essay is inspiring too, in that it uses words to dissolve that same type of subject matter together. "Animal Body, Inhuman Face" by Alphonso Lingus in the book "Zoontologies" edited by Cary Wolfe.