Embodied Subject: Performance, Craft, and the Body

Abstract

Embodied Subject: Performance, Craft, and the Body is practice-led research exploring the intersection between craft, performance, and the situation of the female body. The key question driving this research is: What are the possibilities for exploring craft through performance, and what can this nexus of craft and performance say about the embodied subject? My research focus is on the relationship between my own female body as the maker and performer of craft objects. My methods include studio craft such as jewellery, glass, and ceramics combined with performance practices that are documented through still and moving images. My strategy is to use my own body as the subject matter in order to interrogate issues of representation of the female body in the discipline of craft within the arena of visual art. My aims include: examine how craft materials and objects carry bodily associations; explore how ornament and detail might function as an extension of craft; test the use of craft materials and techniques in combination with performance to make works that resonate with the viewer on a corporeal level; identify where bodily performance lies in my work; test the use of craft objects as performance documents; and test the use of craft production, objects, and performance in digital image and video space. This research is framed by my readings of craft theory, feminist theory, affect theory, gender studies, and performance studies, including the theories of Glenn Adamson, Philip Auslander, Elissa Authur, Susan Best, Anthea Black, Nicole Burisch, Liesbeth den Besten, Namita Gupta Wiggers, Benjamin Lignel, Amelia Jones, Meredith Jones, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Laura Mulvey, Legacy Russell, Naomi Shor, and Jenni Sorkin. To position my work in the field I have studied artists whose works incorporates object making and performance, such as Janine Antoni, Ben Gould, Tiffany Parbs. This research has also been informed by a key field trip to the Archie Bray Foundation residency. For this research, I have explored my question, aims, and objectives through the production of new individual works that are part of Devices for Filling a Void, a series of ceramic, glass, and metal objects that are worn in or held by the body and paired with photographs of my body reactivating the objects in situ; and new bodies of work titled Flourish (a series of objects worn on the face that are constructed out of decorative metal elements paired with digital videos), To Hold... (a series of blown glass vessels with imprints of body formed using plaster castings of my body paired with photographs); and culminating in the final body of work for examination, To Have or To Hold... a series of performative videos where I distort thrown ceramic vessels through holding them against my body. In the directness of the action forming clay against skin, this work addresses my key research question. The resulting research shows that my craft practice can be embodied through performance videos in ways that explores subjective bodily experience. Show more