composition (red)

A performance I did last year.

Vomiting, known medically as emesis. The vomiting act has two phases. In the retching phase, the abdominal muscles undergo a few rounds of co-ordinated contractions with the diphragm and the muscles used in respiratory inspiration. In the next phase, the expulsive phase, intense pressure is formed in the stomach, brought about by enormous shifts in both the diaphragm and the abdomen. These shifts are, in essence rigorous contractions of these muscles that last for extended periods of time. The pressure is then suddenly released when the upper esophageal sphincter relaxes resulting in the expulsion of gastric contents. The relief of pressure and the release of endorphins into the bloodstream after the expulsion causes the vomiter to feel better.







'Ritual recognises the potency of disorder.'

-Mary Douglas in Purity & Danger







'It is almost as if, before being internally absorbed by the individual, food was by cooking, collectively predigested. One cannot share the food prepared by people without sharing in their nature.'

-Mary Douglas

leviticus

19 When a woman has her regular flow of blood, the impurity of her monthly period will last seven days, and anyone who touches her will be unclean till evening.
20 Anything she lies on during her period will be unclean, and anything she sits on will be unclean. 
21 Whoever touches her bed must wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will be unclean till evening. 
22 Whoever touches anything she sits on must wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will be unclean till evening. 
23 Whether it is the bed or anything she was sitting on, when anyone touches it, he will be unclean till evening.
24 If a man lies with her and her monthly flow touches him, he will be unclean for seven days; any bed he lies on will be unclean.
25 When a woman has a discharge of blood for many days at a time other than her monthly period or has a discharge that continues beyond her period, she will be unclean as long as she has the discharge, just as in the days of her period.
26 Any bed she lies on while her discharge continues will be unclean, as is her bed during her monthly period, and anything she sits on will be unclean as during her period. 27 Whoever touches them will be unclean; he must wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will be unclean till evening.
28 When she is cleansed from her discharge, she must count off seven days, and after that she will be ceremonially clean. 
29 On the eighth day she must take two young pigeons and bring them to the priest at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. 
30 The priest is to sacrifice one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering. In this way he will make atonement for her before the LORD for the uncleanness s of her discharge.


Thanks bible.
Good to know that my body is particularly sinful, contaminating and unclean.
Happy easter! Time for some chocolate now.

luce irigaray : kate just : sexuated difference

Went to a series of lectures about Luce Irigaray today at VCA. I'm about halfway through reading This Sex Which is Not One so it was interesting to get a variety of perspectives on her writing.
In the book Irigaray discusses the status of woman in Western philosophical discourse and in psychoanalytic theory. Freud's essays on female sexual development are analyzed and critiqued in a fair amount of detail.
"Freud falls back on the affirmation that the libido is necessarily male, and maintains that there is in fact only one libido, but that in the case of femininity it may put itself in the service of "passive aims. P.58"
Irigaray also talks about psychoanalysts who have offered alternatives to Freud's theorization of penis envy in infant girls; such as Melanie Klien, who discussed 'penis envy' as "a secondary reaction formation compensating for the difficulty that the girl, the woman experiences in sustaining her own desire. P.52"
One of the lectures was an artist's talk by Kate Just whose work seemed very related to Irigaray's writing and concerned with interiority and space and the female body. the work Just showed was entitled Inward Gathering and was an installation of three components. The first was a series of oversized keys modeled in shiny black clay with various symbols inscribed upon them. Each key is representative of a person significant to the artist. (the one below is the artist as she perceives herself)




On a mirrored oval on the floor of the room sit several glass flasks filled with water; all rounded shapes with teetering, precarious spouts. They looked scientific, but are clustered together in an intimate way.


On the wall opposite the keys are a number of perspex boxes which contain collages of strange instruments designed to probe the body; endoscopes, butt plugs, scalpels, what look like medical and dental instruments... all concerned with probing, slicing and entering the body


Here's a few of Kate Just's knitted sculptures. They look amazing.




I'm definitely going to Kate Just's next show, which will be:
SOLO:
Unearthed
Craft Victoria
28 April - 11 June 2011
Opening Night: Thursday 28 April, 6-8pm
For more information go to

Craft Victoria

phantasms

Some drawings I've been doing lately of figments of the imagination.

chiharu shiota : detached gallery : hobart

ed. I finally got some photos developed from this exhibition......they're pretty blurry as I was using a camera without a flash....but they really do remind me of being there....







This exhibition was awesome.
The first room contained one image, of a burning piano positioned in front of the gallery. the second was spectacular and dizzying, with the burnt piano surrounded by an immense spider web of black wool. It was difficult to focus my eyes with all the strands- like standing in a cloud of smoke.



Up a flight of stairs were two performative video works. The first, a projection, was of a woman lying naked with coils of plastic tubes surrounding her body. Red liquid would flow through the tubes, giving the appearance that she was being drained and refilled systematically.
In the second video, a woman sits in a bath of mud and pours dirt and water over her face and shoulders. it reminded me of death and being buried alive with all the clumps of dirt catching on her face, but at the same time was very beautiful. There was sound accompanying both videos. long melodic notes. I'd like to start making work with a more complex use of sound.