The Saprotrophic Body

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2019-08-28 The Saprotrophic Body

Chartrand, Eve

Chartrand, E. (2019). The Saprotrophic Body (Unpublished master's thesis). University of Calgary, Calgary, AB. http://hdl.handle.net/1880/110845 master thesis

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The Saprotrophic Body

Eve Chartrand

A THESIS

SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE

DEGREE OF MASTER OF FINE ARTS

GRADUATE PROGRAM IN ART

CALGARY, ALBERTA

AUGUST, 2019

Through two years of extensive research creation, this paper investigates the nature of

women’s negative body representations associated with ageing, including narratives of

inclusiveness and visibility outside normative constructs. As part of an MFA, extensive literature

reviews helped transform areas of interest into meaningful research questions. The literature

included studies on ageism, embodiment, death rituals, material culture, thingness, medical gaze,

regeneration, excess, the abject and the social dimension of participation (Bishop, 2006) in

contemporary art. Research-creation included applying variations of Robert K. Yin’s case study

research and applications. Existing literature and other artists’ works permeated all areas of

creative case study research as Moustakas’ processes of heuristic inquiry (immersion, incubation,

illumination, explication, and creative synthesis (Moustakas 1985) systematically unfolded. The

six creative case studies resulted in a deeper understanding of the implications of current

negative body definitions in middle-aged women’s lives to self-identity and agency. Applying a

case study methodology to research creation provided a formal structure to an otherwise

equivocal creative process in building a concrete path for problem solving. Dissemination

confirmed and informed the efficacy and relevance of artistic choices and established grounds

for further research. This was mainly based on successful strategies retrieved from previous

creative case studies that answered the initial research question. Artistic transformative

encounters (Gynning 2016), conducted and presented in this paper, challenge the idea that ageing

is intrinsically defined by disability, ontological decay, and death.

Keywords: ageing, inclusiveness, women, body representations, visibility, creative case studies

ii Acknowledgements

I would first like to thank my thesis supervisor Dr. Jennifer Eiserman and co-supervisor

Dr. Jean-René Leblanc of the Department of Art at The University of Calgary in Canada as well as Dr. Suzanne Goopy, my committee member. Without their passionate participation and substantial input, this work could not have been successfully conducted.

I am gratefully indebted to their very valuable comments on this thesis and their generous support. Merci infiniment.

iii Dedication

I dedicate this thesis to my beloved partner Nicolas, whose generosity and intelligence are constant sources of inspiration and wonderment. This work is also an ode to my parents, siblings and anyone suffering from being invisible.

iv Table of Contents

Abstract ...... ii Acknowledgements ...... iii Dedication ...... iv Table of Contents ...... v List of Figures and Illustrations ...... viii Epigraph ...... xii

Introduction ...... 1 1) Mise-en-situation ...... 4 2) Data collection ...... 5 Aesthetic wandering ...... 5 Immersion / Circumscription ...... 5 3) Data analysis ...... 5 In depth study ...... 5 Incubation period: ...... 5 4) Creative Data synthesis ...... 5 Experimentation ...... 5 Summary ...... 6 Cogitation / Assessment ...... 6

Chapter 2: Case study no.1: Conservo. Fall 2017...... 7 1) Mise-en-situation ...... 8 2) Data collection ...... 9 Aesthetic wandering: ...... 9 Immersion / Circumscription ...... 11 3) Data analysis ...... 14 In depth study ...... 14 Incubation period: ...... 15 4) Creative Data Synthesis ...... 15 Experimentation ...... 15 Summary ...... 18 Cogitation/Assessment ...... 19

Chapter 3: Case study no.2: Exposed Yet Unseen. Spring 2018...... 21 1) Mise-en-situation ...... 22 2) Data collection ...... 23 Aesthetic wandering ...... 23 Immersion / Circumscription ...... 24 3) Data analysis ...... 27 In depth study ...... 27 Incubation period: ...... 27 4) Creative Data Synthesis ...... 28 Experimentation ...... 28 Cogitation / Assessment ...... 28 Summary ...... 29 v Chapter 4: Case Study no. 3: Is There Any Body Home? Summer/Fall 2018 ...... 30 1) Mise-en-situation ...... 31 2) Data collection ...... 33 Aesthetic wandering ...... 33 Sensuous Re-Awakenings ...... 33 Unfoldings: Because there is no getting away from language ...... 33 Anything lived into long enough becomes an orchard: Because bodies transform, regenerate and are forever evolving ...... 33 Immersion / circumscription ...... 34 3) Data analysis ...... 34 In depth study ...... 34 Incubation period: ...... 35 4) Creative Data Synthesis ...... 36 Experimentation ...... 36 Summary ...... 43 Cogitation/Assessment ...... 43

Chapter 5: Case Study no. 4: Aggregates. Fall 2018 ...... 45 1) Mise-en-situation ...... 47 2) Data collection ...... 48 Aesthetic wandering ...... 48 Immersion/circumscription ...... 49 3) Data analysis ...... 53 In depth study ...... 53 Incubation period: ...... 54 4) Creative Data Synthesis ...... 56 Experimentation ...... 56 Summary ...... 58 Cogitation / Assessment ...... 58

Chapter 6: Case Study no. 5: Bacterial Landscapes. Summer & Fall 2019...... 60 1) Mise-en-situation ...... 61 2) Data Collection ...... 61 Aesthetic wandering ...... 61 Immersion / Circumscription ...... 63 3) Data Analysis ...... 65 In depth study ...... 65 Incubation period: ...... 66 4) Data Creative Synthesis ...... 69 Experimentation ...... 69 Summary ...... 70 Cogitation/Assessment ...... 70

Chapter 7: Case Study No. 6: The Saprotrophic Body. Summer 2019...... 71 1) Mise-en-situation ...... 72 2) Data Collection ...... 72 Aesthetic wandering ...... 72 vi Immersion / Circumscription ...... 73 3) Data Analysis ...... 74 In depth study ...... 74 Incubation period: ...... 75 4) Creative Data Synthesis ...... 77 Experimentation ...... 77 Summary ...... 80 Cogitation / Assessment ...... 81

Conclusion ...... 82

References ...... 87

Appendix 1: Creative Writings ...... 93

Appendix 2: Blog (screen captures)...... 98

vii List of Figures and Illustrations

Figure 1: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2017. Exhibition poster ...... 7

Figure 2: Provost, Chartrand Eve. 2017. Conservo. Installation view ...... 8

Figure 3: Mann, Sally. 2000.Untitled (Curtain_01). Retrieved from: Retrieved from: https://www.sallymann.com/bodyfarm/vjv0hinzbdgaagcqmm0uzq2dy8a8n7 ...... 9

Figure 4: Markovskiy, Mikhail. Chandelier made of bones and skulls in Sedlec ossuary, Kutna Hora, Czech Republic Retrieved from: https://www.123rf.com/photo_24795895_chandelier-made-of-bones-and-skulls-in- sedlec-ossuary-kutna-hora-czech-republic.html ...... 10

Figure 5:1900’s Pie Safe/Medical Steamer. Retrieved from: https://www.rubylane.com/item/1317328-6706/Antique-1907-Conservo-Steamer- Toledo-Cooker ...... 12

Figure 6: Provost, Chartrand, Eve.2017. Conservo: The Daughter ...... 12

Figure 7:1940s Vintage Enamel Bed Pan Female. Retrieved from: https://www.indiamart.com/proddetail/enamel-hospital-ware-1453222133.html ...... 13

Figure 8:1940s Vintage Enamel Urinal Male. Retrieved from: https://www.retrorespection.com.au/vintage-enamel-bedpan-urinal-port ...... 13

Figure 9: Mann, Sally. 2000.Untitled (WR-Pa-001). Retrieved from: https://gagosian.com/artists/sally-mann/ ...... 14

Figure 10: Provost, Chartrand, Eve. 2017. Conservo: The Daughter ...... 16

Figure 11: Unknown. Late Stage Decomposition. Retrieved from: https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/offtrack/late-stage decomposition.jpg/4838134 ...... 16

Figure 12: Koudounaris, Paul. 2011. Retrieved from: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/ the-most-beautiful-dead-photographs-of-jeweled-skeletons ...... 17

Figure 13: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2017. Conservo: The Daughter ...... 17

Figure 14: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2017. Conservo: The Mother ...... 18

Figure 15: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2018. Exhibition poster ...... 21

Figure 16: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2018. Exposed Yet Unseen. Front view ...... 22

Figure 17: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2018. Exposed Yet unseen. Back view ...... 22

viii Figure 18: Coyne, Peta. 2005. Untitled #1060 (Tatiaroa), detail. Retrieved from: https://www.escapeintolife.com/artist-watch/petah-coyne/ ...... 25

Figure 19: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2018. Exposed Yet Unseen ...... 26

Figure 20: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2018. Exposed Yet Unseen...... 26

Figure 21: Ross, Philip. 2012.The Five Finger Yamanaka. Retrieved from: https://www.mycoworks.com ...... 26

Figure 22: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2018. Exposed Yet Unseen...... 26

Figure 23: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2018. Exhibition poster ...... 30

Figure 24: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2018. Is There Any Body Home: Anything lived into long enough becomes an orchard...... 32

Figure 25: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2018. Is There Any Body Home: Sensuous Reawakenings & Unfoldings. Installation view...... 32

Figure 26: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2018.Is There Any Body Home? Specimen 1: a brooch ...... 37

Figure 27: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2018.Is There Any Body Home? Specimen 2: dentures ...... 38

Figure 28: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2018. Is There Any Body Home? Specimen 3: a teacup. .... 39

Figure 29: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2018.Is There Any Body Home? Specimen 4: an ear trumpet...... 40

Figure 30: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2018.Is There Any Body Home? Specimen 5: a hairbrush...... 41

Figure 31: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2018. Is There Any Body Home? Specimen 6: infant wear ...... 42

Figure 32: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2018. Exhibition poster ...... 45

Figure 33: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2018. Aggregates. Installation view ...... 46

Figure 34: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2018. Aggregates: Host. Photo credit: Mercedes Webb...... 47

Figure 35: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2018. Is There Any Body Home? ...... 48

Figure 36: Coffin trolley. Retrieved from: https://www.ceabis.it/eng/handling-and-recovery- equipment/extensible-coffin-trolleys-handling-of-coffins.html ...... 48

Figure 37: Provost Chartrand, Eve, 2018. Aggregates: Material Agency ...... 49

ix Figure 38: De Bruyckere, Berlinde. 2007/08. In Doubt. Retrieved from: https://www.museum-joanneum.at/ ...... 51

Figure 39: Hesse, Eva. 1970. No Title. Retrieved from: https://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/Hesse-s-sculpture-one-last-look-Artist-s- 2879525.php...... 51

Figure 40: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2018. Aggregates: Elegy ...... 52

Figure 41: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2018. Aggregates: Inoculation...... 53

Figure 42: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2018. Aggregates: Material Agency. Photo credit: Mercedes Webb...... 56

Figure 43: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2018. Aggregates: Material Agency...... 57

Figure 44: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2019. Phagein ...... 59

Figure 45: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2019. Exhibition poster ...... 60

Figure 46: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2019. Sheldon M. Chumir Centre. Installation view ...... 61

Figure 47: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2019. Bacterial Landscapes ...... 63

Figure 48: Cave, Nick. 2009/2011. Sound suits ...... 64

Figure 49: Altmejd, David, 2003. Untitled-Black-V3-JE3. Retrieved from: https://flux.macm.org/en/the-gallery/untitled-black/ ...... 66

Figure 50: Garner, Doreen. 2015. NEO (PLASM). Retrieved from: http://www.doreengarner.com/abjection ...... 67

Figure 51: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2019. Bacterial Landscapes ...... 68

Figure 52: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2019. Bacterial Landscapes ...... 69

Figure 53: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2019. Exhibition poster ...... 71

Figure 54: Found objects and Green House ...... 73

Figure 55: Baumel, Sonja. 2015. Expanded Self II. Retrieved from: http://www.sonjabaeumel.at/ ...... 74

Figure 56: Rasdjarmrearnsook, Araya. 2005. Reading Poems to Female Corpses. http://withreferencetodeath.philippocock.net/blog/rasdjarmrearnsook-araya-reading- corpses-to-female-corpses-2005 ...... 76

Figure 57: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2019. The Saprotrophic Body ...... 77

x Figure 58: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2019. Harvest ...... 78

Figure 59: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2019. Phagein...... 79

Figure 60: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2019. The Saprotrophic Body ...... 80

xi Epigraph

“The human body is a tiny part in a living, pulsating, ever-expanding multi-beings’ entanglement. A growing two-dimensional microbial surface, laying like a skin over an abstract, three-dimensional and trans-border landscape. Bodies expand, liquefy, overgrow, get under the skin and unite. The once liquid material fuses them together, allowing interspaces and exchange, while bringing bodies in direct contact. When we touch a surface, our skin picks up many new microbes and leaves others behind. Being in the world as an individual really means being a multi-being community in a vital process of permanent exchange. Bodies constantly mingle and adapt to our surroundings. They become landscapes, biotopes and nutrient supply. The shown bodies’ microbial landscape together with the unreal scale contributes to questioning the boundaries, relations and co-habitats existing between different bodies and at the same time intend to expand our ethical perspective” (Bäumel, 2018)

xii

Introduction

The thesis, that this paper supports, is a culmination of 2 years of extensive research creation that investigated the nature of women’s negative body representations associated with ageing. Visual iterations explored the implications to self-identity and agency of current negative body definitions in women’s lives through the implementation of six creative case studies.

Through research-creation, I studied how artistic transformative encounters, wherein underlying, unifying motifs evoke horror and frailty, also speak to common humaneness, regeneration, solidarities, and shared vulnerabilities. While it explored narratives of inclusiveness and visibility outside normative representations of women’s bodies, the work also proposed images of embodied things where materiality had agency that related to its surroundings and divergent bodies were revealed and celebrated for their uniqueness and generative attributes. Therefore, it challenged, in varied ways, the idea that ageing is intrinsically defined by disability, ontological decay, and death. I explored visual strategies that defied limited anthropomorphic views that might falsify or alter phenomenological experiences of nature and steer viewers away from a place of origin situated in the body. Thereby, I proposed a compassionate and vibrant humanism prone to generating re-interpretations and re-considerations of ageing negative bodies.

Observing both my parents enter old age, devastated by terrible degenerative diseases, I have experienced first-hand how disabled and “disgraceful” bodies trigger unease, contempt, and/or indifference, even violence. Living in a culture that equates old age with disease and decline (Calasanti 2005) compelled me to find ways to resist and transgress such discriminative gazes.

My initial research investigations into notions of ageism, through empirical observations and reminiscence of family histories, revealed how unconventional bodies clash with and

2 destabilize the dominant social order where successful ageing is considered attainable solely through individual choices and effort (Gilleard and Higgs 2000). I was saddened to realize that instead of being offered solutions for well-being grounded in diversity and adapted to evolving cultural lifestyles, the ageing, disabled bodies are forever more isolated, excluded, disembodied, and left responsible for their own fate.

In their 2009 article “A conceptual analysis of Ageism” Thomas Nicolaj Iversen, Lars

Larsen & Per Erik Solem posit that:

“Ageism is defined as negative or positive stereotypes, prejudice and/or discrimination against (or to the advantage of) elderly people on the basis of their chronological age or on the basis of a perception of them as being ‘old’ or ‘elderly’. Ageism can be implicit or explicit and can be expressed on a micro- meso-, or macro-level.

The concept includes the classic social psychological components in the form of: 1) cognitive (stereotypes), 2) affective (prejudice), 3) and behavioral components (discrimination), in other words, how we on the basis of chronological age or age categorization mistakenly; 1) think of, 2) feel for, 3) and act in the ageing human being. Furthermore, ageism can operate both consciously (explicitly) and unconsciously (implicitly) and can manifest itself on three different levels: the individual (micro-level), in social networks (meso-level) and on institutional and cultural level (macro-level).” p.15)

This definition, and the fact that as a result of North American governments’ appalling contemporary policies, has resulted in dehumanizing and disengaged political agendas that now consider later life as a personal responsibility (Gilleard and Higgs 2000). My research creation took a closer look at the negative, mostly explicit, aspects of ageism that manifest on all levels and affect cognitive, affective, and behavioral components.

From a life-span perspective, I am currently in what Erikson defines as middle adulthood in his psychosocial theory of development and at the edge of the eighth and final stage of

3 development beginning at approximately age 65 1 (Erikson as cited in Sokol, 2009). This fact motivated me to investigate and address the nature of women’s negative body representations associated with ageing. Specifically, what are the implications to self-identity and agency of current negative body definitions in Western, post-industrial societies in middle-aged women’s lives? How can we challenge the idea that ageing is intrinsically defined by disability, ontological decay, and death?

Extensive literature reviews were conducted throughout the MFA to help shape personal areas of interest into meaningful research questions. These ranged from studies on ageism, embodiment, death rituals, material culture, thingness, medical gaze, and regeneration to radical decadence in feminist textiles and crafts (Skelly 2017) and the social dimension of participation

(Bishop, 2006) in contemporary art. In addition to reflecting on the realization that works conducted throughout the MFA were inscribed in one overarching creative process, I applied and adapted Robert K. Yin’s case study research and applications (Yin, 2018) to my research- creation. Yin’s methodological path emerged organically as I looked closer at stages involved in researching and conceiving each iteration of visual art in the studio where I was instinctively:

- defining the “case” to be studied;

- collecting information and determining its relevancy;

- establishing criteria for interpreting the findings and figuring out how to implement them visually;

1 Generativity versus stagnation is the seventh of eight stages of Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development and takes place during middle adulthood between the ages of approximately 40 and 65; it precedes the eighth and final stage of integrity vs. despair beginning at approximately 65 and described as late adulthood. Middle adulthood is the stage where adults strive to create or nurture things that will outlast them. Contributing to society to benefit future generations are important needs at this stage of development. (Brown, Lowis, 2003)

- disseminating through visual iterations the results of creative inquiries;

- acknowledging strengths and limitations of the visual inquiry.

Robert K. Yin case study research Research-Creation applications

Survey of the field Mise-en-situation

Define – Prepare – collect evidence Data collection

Design Data analysis

Analyze Creative Data Synthesis

Conclude Summary

Replication Cogitation/Assessment

Table 1: Comparison of Yin’ elements of Case Study with Research Creation Applications.

Furthermore, in each case study, exploring the existing literature and works of other artists permeated all areas of research as Moustakas’ processes of heuristic inquiry (immersion, incubation, illumination, explication and creative synthesis (Moustakas 1985) systematically unfolded in each of the four areas as follows:

1) Mise-en-situation

General impressions of fields of interest were considered and informed by actual

concerns, then clarified as the heuristic process evolved.

2) Data collection

Aesthetic wandering:

I intuitively hunted for answers to research questions in two ways. Firstly, by collecting objects for their symbolic and aesthetic qualities and/or their etymological value based on intuition and experimentation and secondly, by allowing the objects to speak and echo inner thoughts.

Immersion / Circumscription:

By experiencing, sensing, discovering, contemplating, and by participating in life events, through observation and conversation, I sought out meaningful and significant relationships.

3) Data analysis

In depth study:

Focusing on plural manifestations on a micro-level (based on personal/interpersonal relations) helped ground and define my on-going research process.

Incubation period:

Self-reflection on unexpected and meaningful relationships from collected data and looking for inferences through analysis of empirical evidence contributed to creating a sustainable body of work.

4) Creative Data synthesis

Experimentation:

Experimenting with materiality and objects, recombining, and sifting and sorting analyzed data generated works that ultimately embodied the essence of my heuristic proposition.

Summary

Dissemination helped confirm and inform the efficacy and relevance of artistic choices. It also established grounds for further research, mainly based on successful strategies retrieved from previous case studies that answered the initial research question.

Cogitation / Assessment

The objective was to establish which parts of the research question could be answered by the on-going case study, what was learned, and what can be replicated moving forward.

Chapter 2: Case study no.1: Conservo. Fall 2017.

Figure 1: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2017. Exhibition poster.

The first case study was presented in the 621 Gallery, in the fall of 2017. On the back- gallery wall, painted in black and mounted at eye level, three assemblages constructed of found objects, encaustic, organic matter, medical tubing, beads, and vintage silk fabric, were displayed.

The space was intentionally dimly lit so pieces hung on the wall could be further demarcated by cold lights shining from ceiling spotlights.

Figure 2: Provost, Chartrand Eve. 2017. Conservo. Installation view.

1) Mise-en-situation

Coming to terms with the fact that I am now middle-aged (Iversen, Larsen & Solem,

2009), I have decided to start my reflection on ageism by revisiting my own personal relationship to ageing and death. As I am ageing, it becomes necessary to ultimately find ways to demystify

9 the social “fear of our future selves” (Nelson, 2005) becoming invisible and provide narratives of inclusiveness and visibility through my work.

2) Data collection

Aesthetic wandering:

Sparked by my latest fascination with animal bones and animal deaths occurring in the

Californian desert where I had been living prior to moving to Calgary, I came to the studio at first with an urgency to tell personal stories of grief and recount how carcasses continue to generate life through their decomposition.

Figure 3: Mann, Sally. 2000.Untitled (Curtain_01). Retrieved from: Retrieved from: https://www.sallymann.com/bodyfarm/vjv0hinzbdgaagcqmm0uzq2dy8a8n7

Marveled by the works of artists such as Sally Mann, whose photographs echo personal and contemplative relationships to embodied death and profound sorrow, I am also driven by the same desire to show how life keeps on happening long after the body has become a corpse. I had hoped to create moments of desolate beauty where the visual complexity of decaying bodies would trigger solemn emotions, kinship, and resonate with my current concerns regarding entropy.

Channeled through visits to flea markets, antique malls, and auction houses, hopes of reigniting past feelings would arise and make sense of current ideas. I touched, felt, and smelled objects that awaited their revelation. A similar quest led me to visit ossuaries in Spain and catacombs in Paris. All in death appeared bountiful and excessive, pushing boundaries of the

11 expected and inflicting visual narratives of morbid abundance, captivating, yet profoundly disturbing. Comparable to rococo aesthetics, decaying organic matter seemed accreted to the point of being nullified. Nonetheless, this overload of visual information, this excess of stimuli, did end up bestowing a powerful sense of swarming vitality to an otherwise grim tableau.

Immersion / Circumscription:

On a journey back to my hometown in Quebec, I visited nursing homes where the brutal urine stench, the austerity of the sanitized medicalized rooms, and the parked wheelchairs in the hallways hosting incapacitated bodies and overlooked identities, participated in recreating significant and powerful phenomenological memories of recent experiences. All along, I attempted to articulate overwhelming feelings of unease and profound revolt related to fear, disbelief, grief, and disgust. I remember having growing concerns about my own value as an ageing woman, as I witnessed my relatives lose their social relevancy and value because of their incapacity to make productive and useful contributions to a society that values performance, and be progressively relegated to oblivion. I felt compelled, yet again, to find ways to resist and transgress misconceptions of a person’s loss of agency, unwilling to conform; it called forth outrage. Instinctively, I felt that persistent stereotyping and blatant cruelty confined ageing bodies to the margins of society and excluded them from cultural and social discourse.

My research question was slowly and forcibly taking shape. Circumscribing ageism and understanding how systemic and systematic stereotyping occur and function became an essential preface to further explorations. Additional reviews of gendered norms afflicting women’s ageing bodies delimited areas of interest and provided an initial understanding of how transgression and

12 resistance could be possible. A brief study of the abject form helped shape visual enunciations and finally, an inquiry into the world of heuristics helped defined a possible methodology.

Back in Calgary, I wandered once more through flea markets, antique malls, and auction houses, struggling with painful emotions while searching for release. During one of my promenades, I stumbled upon a 1920’s pie safe (that was also used as a medical instrument sterilizer) and was instinctively attracted to its form, and metaphorical potential; I sensed I had found Conservo’s pivotal piece.

Figure 5:1900’s Pie Safe/Medical Steamer. Retrieved from: Figure 6: Provost, Chartrand, Eve.2017. Conservo: https://www.rubylane.com/item/1317328-6706/Antique-1907- The Daughter. Conservo-Steamer-Toledo-Cooker

From then on, I knew I wanted to create family portraits of both my parents and me. I needed to find objects that most effectively represented and recalled my mother’s and father’s late health struggles, hence the bed pan and the urinal, as well as my own frays with the degenerative state of my own ageing body, ergo the pie safe and reversed spinal cord. Indeed, it felt like my own body was restrained by pain and constrained by loss of mobility as my bones fused and crumbled.

Figure 7:1940s Vintage Enamel Bed Pan Female. Retrieved from: https://www.indiamart.com/proddetail/enamel-hospital-ware-1453222133.html

Figure 8:1940s Vintage Enamel Urinal Male. Retrieved from: https://www.retrorespection.com.au/vintage-enamel-bedpan-urinal-port

3) Data analysis

In depth study:

Figure 9: Mann, Sally. 2000.Untitled (WR-Pa-001). Retrieved from: https://gagosian.com/artists/sally-mann/

Unequivocally, ageing is a reality we all experience regardless of ethnicity, gender, or social class. It has been my experience that, as we get older, we all become somewhat ungendered and undefined, deeply rooted in our corporeality, universal in our mortality.

Researching what constitutes end-of-life abjection, “[this] absence of self-consciousness, of self- control, of corporeal ownership” (Hughes 2009), through the metaphorical power of art, assuredly prompts fear and concern, but might be pivotal to challenging misconceptions of ageing bodies.

Incubation period:

While searching for ways to emancipate bodies from the symbolic and representative, I came upon Kristeva’s work on abjection, and how it relates to a “construction of a not-me”

(Butler 1999). Kristeva posits that in order to function socially, we make “abject” what is different to reduce the threat of what makes us vulnerable and to make dissonance bearable. I know that exposing ourselves to otherness might be damaging to the self, but unfortunately, these acts of degradation and denial appear to have become commonplace. From my personal standpoint, we have become intolerant and violently segregated from anything that is unfamiliar to us.

4) Creative Data Synthesis

Experimentation:

Although I initially considered Biggs’ concept of the masquerade as a fecund option, as a creative and resilient play of “serviceable identities” (Biggs 2004) that generates self-discovery, my inclination towards a more ontological, visceral view of the body directed my visual exploration. Therefore, this first series of works explored the decaying body through the lenses of the abject and the macabre, both of which abet to harden prejudices of old age. I worked at finding strategies that would visually expose the bystander to challenging misconceptions of ageing bodies by generating an array of emotions, such as apprehension, concern, and even disgust. By doing so, the work served as an emotional gateway to my most visceral fears: death and decay. Consequently, in order to provoke further emotional responses, I investigated the transgressive attributes of abjection and decay, and wondered if the abject, uttered as visual strategy, had the potential to emote and denounce ageism.

Figure 10: Provost, Chartrand, Eve. 2017. Conservo: The Figure 11: Unknown. Late Stage Decomposition. Daughter. Retrieved from: https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/offtrac k/late-stage decomposition.jpg/4838134

As an art enthusiast, I experienced first-hand the push-and-pull power of the abject as a visual form, its potential to catalyze fascination but also relate to destabilizing feelings induced by fear of intimacy, and/or contamination, in situations of pain and suffering. Indubitably, my assemblages were destined to evoke the horror and repulsion sparked by the institutionalized health care system, but strangely enough, they ended up also irradiating the touching beauty and profound marvel I experienced while witnessing my parents accepting their ontological fate with serenity. The use of the rococo genre, ornate, decorative, and excessive, also contrasted the darkness of the visual proposition by offering respite through comforting and reconciliating sentiments grounded in wonderment and contemplation.

Figure 12: Koudounaris, Paul. 2011. Retrieved from: Figure 13: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2017. Conservo: The https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/ Daughter. the-most-beautiful-dead-photographs-of-jeweled-skeletons

Reflections on nostalgia and memory

Reviews of the work mainly sparked questions about its nostalgic quality and questioned the “now” of the overall installation. My initial aim was not to emote nostalgia but to allude to old age by using objects of an era that was relevant (those objects were telling the stories of my parents who were born in 1925). Found objects in my work also served as icons of absence, tokens of memory, and referenced death and trauma without any intent of being sentimental or nostalgic.

Akin to the work of Christian Boltanski, my work deals with remembrance and its relationship to personal histories, identity in the cultural space, and the body as a memorial site.

My works “point out to memories [they are] continuously recreated events, based on the past

[hence nostalgic], but understood through the present.” (Caines, 2004).

Figure 14: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2017. Conservo: The Mother.

Summary

After exploring an aesthetic that evoked and challenged concepts of ageing bodies, decay, death and family, some questions were still left unanswered: Is exposing the viewer to what

19 constitutes abjection in old age and sickness compelling enough to instigate new assessments and advocate social reinsertion, away from stigmatization? Is a visual exploration of corporeal frailty and decay successful at triggering common humanness? Do mirrored revulsion and transferred feelings of exclusion provoke enough concern and outrage in viewers to spark a discussion or do they end up pushing potential viewers away?

Cogitation/Assessment

Specifically, what are the implications to self-identity and agency of current negative body definitions in Western, post-industrial societies in middle-aged women’s lives? How can we challenge the idea that ageing is intrinsically defined by disability, ontological decay, and death?

In Conservo, the choice of rococo aesthetics, its overwhelming, over ornate, superfluous, too-much-of-everything style, mimicked the densification of old age I experienced while visiting nursing homes. Likewise, the genre was used to echo metaphorically medical prejudices stating that old age is analogous to biological chaos (Vincent 2006); finally, it replicated the ageing body’s ontological complexity, emphasizing its lurid attributes. The use of organic components such as traditional healing herbs and foods, bones, and the repetition of motifs such as flowers and vintage textiles, anchored the works in the vernacular, making it more accessible, palatable, and relatable.

Reflecting on the installation, I now realize that these pieces offered subtle readings without directly calling the viewer into action. If my work wants to actively address and challenge misconceptions of ageing, thus answering matters relevant to my research-creation, it

20 would need to be more discerning and somewhat adamant to provoke reactions and initiate reflection.

Chapter 3: Case study no.2: Exposed Yet Unseen. Spring 2018.

Figure 15: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2018. Exhibition poster.

The second case study was presented in the 621 Gallery, in the spring of 2018. When entering the gallery space, the installation, constructed of a medical screen, found objects, organic matter, encaustic, medical tubing, beads, and vintage silk fabric, stood alone, lit by six

Edison bulbs suspended from vintage cloth electrical cords. The decaying front side of the screen greeted viewers, obscuring the living side tucked on the backside. Lights were incorporated into the structure to bring transparency and radiance to the object. The space was intentionally dimly lit so the piece would seem to glow warmly from the inside.

Figure 16: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2018. Exposed Yet Unseen. Figure 17: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2018. Exposed Yet Front view. unseen. Back view.

1) Mise-en-situation

The first case study introduced the viewers to negative assumptions and representations of ageing by linking them with decay and degeneration. While still concerned with generating

23 transgressive “gestures of defiance” (Meagher 2014), Exposed yet Unseen resulted in works evoking compassion that registered affect through time rather than shock. I wished to play on what is not revealed, what might be hidden in folds, and what might be lost in negative spaces to register histories and experiences of singularity, while simultaneously offering unindividuated objects that speak to everyone. Having revisited my own personal relationship with old age and death in my previous work, I decided to delve deeper into relationships between what is expected or presumed and the reality of old age. Previous personal experiences made me aware of ways in which elders were frequently pigeonholed and defined in relation to their illnesses and deficiencies. I have witnessed how this cohort is discriminated against owing to what we interpret as loss of agency or failure to embody the pervasive consumerist “agelessness” fantasy.

2) Data collection

Aesthetic wandering:

A visit to a doctor’s office prompted a reflection on the dynamics of private versus public spaces in depersonalized environments and the need to investigate the paradox of being exposed to the medical gaze when in fact you feel you are not truly being seen. Consequently, it made sense to work around the privacy screen or curtains, epitomes of concealment in medical settings. Finding the object was relatively easy, but having both sides interact with each other to convey the contradiction I wished to express proved to be more difficult than expected. How could I highlight the screen’s primary purpose, which is to protect and dissimulate, while concurrently exploiting its metaphoric potential to signify scrutiny, judgment, and separation?

Immersion / Circumscription:

Baudrillard’s reflections on old age and how they seemed to echo with such accuracy heartless North American social constructions led me to the following reflection: It is both profoundly disturbing and enlightening to realize that being old is conveniently equated with being “asocial and marginal” (Baudrillard as cited in Biggs 2004) and that ageing bodies are considered doomed and stripped of any symbolic meaning. As Baudrillard’s comments resonated with my own experiences of ageing, it became imperative to explore ways to reveal the uniqueness of old age and provide narratives of inclusiveness and visibility outside of representation as a way of surviving.

I shared many hours casually interviewing ageing women in doctor’s waiting rooms. I volunteered to make art with groups of older women dealing with end-of-life illnesses. These heartfelt conversations and testimonies gave me a sense of the overall dynamics of being exposed, analyzed, examined, and yet being made to feel invisible. Most women shared feelings of gradually having lost their identity as their illness progressed and feeling utterly exposed and vulnerable. In dealing with medical teams and caregivers, they felt compelled to embody their illnesses by negating other lively characteristics of their selves that seemed unrelated and by doing so, felt disembodied as women.

Back in the studio, emotional and aesthetic affiliations with artist Peta Coyne’s works crystallized as I experimented with matter. Apart from her use of haptic and seductive materials, which draw viewers in, the gravid and evocative intricacy of her visual compositions’ blends the memorial, decorative, and decadent features I wish to overemphasize in my own production.

Figure 18: Coyne, Peta. 2005. Untitled #1060 (Tatiaroa), detail. Retrieved from: https://www.escapeintolife.com/artist-watch/petah-coyne/

Coyne’s use of organic matter and heavy encaustic dipping, and her improbable material additions and pairings, were a revelation. Her craftsmanship is phenomenal, compelling, and left me wanting to explore how objects can become powerful embodied melancholic tributes to distraught lives.

At this early stage of production, an intimate and prevalent desire for life also strongly took over; I needed to counter the depletive state of the piece I was working on to convey the overall intent of the project which also talked about vitality and reclamation. An overview of Bio

Arts and especially Philip Ross’s works with mycelium offered fertile solutions and helped outline and infuse life onto the living side of the screen.

Figure 19: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2018. Exposed Figure 20: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2018. Exposed Yet Unseen. Yet Unseen.

Figure 21: Ross, Philip. 2012.The Five Finger Yamanaka. Figure 22: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2018. Exposed Yet Retrieved from: https://www.mycoworks.com Unseen.

3) Data analysis

In depth study:

Based on comments gathered from my previous case study, I was now offering a more positive outlook on the subject matter and offering new proposals to the viewers. While I continued to challenge discriminating stereotypes negating the fertile ground of ageing, its rich individuality, and the uniqueness of its personal landscape, I also celebrated what I thought was the unique role of death in the maintenance of our own personal ecology and the encompassing generosity and ingenious, untimely, and regenerative creativity of nature.

Incubation period:

While caring for my mother and ageing siblings, I witnessed how there seemed to be no other market for mature individuals; no desire, no will for cultural recognition. Those specifics of corporeality, predominantly linked to chronological age, and bound to cultural preconceived ideas of finitude, are still powerful social markers and profoundly shape our conception of embodiment in old age. Unfortunately, fear of our own carnal destiny as we grow older might project us into a fantasy of agelessness and away from a more natural life course whose narrative could be more positive and inclusive if considered. With Exposed yet Unseen I intended to propose more appropriate and fairer considerations of women’s ageing bodies through ontological and naturalistic approaches in which human frailty and vulnerability were grounded in universal shared experiences and situated over one’s lifespan.

4) Creative Data Synthesis

Experimentation:

As my work progressed, I was challenged by the logistics of the piece. Add-on components, both living and inanimate, threatened to dislocate the whole structure under their weight. The screen’s wobbliness ended up symbolizing frailty and decay, qualities that emphasized the feeling I wished to evoke. This structural accident made me consider playing even more on the symbolic value of these objects and going beyond their mere function. In further works, I might consider altering original structures to the point of rendering their utilitarian purpose null, thus unleashing their metaphorical potential beyond what is expected.

For instance, David Altmejd’s use of fragments - and the way he treated them allegorically - implied regeneration, renaissance and reawakening of a matter in becoming.

Cogitation / Assessment

Exposed yet unseen was an exploration of loss of identity in medical settings, loss of social relevancy related to misconceptions of old age, isolation, and expected death. Yet, with this installation, I also wished to draw attention to how life reveals itself in unexpected ways if we dare to look further and beyond what is superficially exposed and expected, thus challenging ideas that ageing is intrinsically defined by ontological decay and death. If people examine life in greater depth and breadth than what is superficially exposed and socially expected, then life

29 finds unsuspected ways to manifest itself.

Summary

Researching new visual associations motivated me to develop a personal narrative wherein materiality became central to the work. Creating nonfigurative, allegorical things has proven to be pivotal in challenging prevalent ideas of ageing. Viewers engaging with the work by watering growing plants provoked me to consider the possibilities of interaction and play as ways of further engaging the audience. Future works would explore harvesting and themes of nourishment and maintenance as they all pertain to the idea of ageing.

Chapter 4: Case Study no. 3: Is There Any Body Home? Summer/Fall 2018

Figure 23: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2018. Exhibition poster.

The third case study was presented in The Little Gallery, in the fall of 2018. Three groups of work were shown and occupied the entire space. The first series greeted the viewer as they entered the gallery and was titled Sensuous Re-Awakenings. The body of works consisted of six small sculptures resting on two tables, displayed in the center of the space. Facing the tables, on opposite walls, a series of six poems titled Unfoldings were pinned to the wall mirroring two shelves on which rested a series titled Anything lived into long enough becomes an orchard. It was comprised of six petri dishes. The gallery was brightly lit to facilitate the viewing and impact of each piece.

1) Mise-en-situation

While the previous case study identified some of the implications of current negative body definitions in middle-aged women’s lives to self-identity, the design process surrounding this third case study was mostly rooted in physical recollection. I was inspired by the idea that I could make use of objects to physically re-experience loss (either by transference or transubstantiation). Being attentive to sensuous, physical indents, impressions, smells, tastes, vibrations of previous experiences, or traumas through materiality facilitated reconnecting with the fleeting memory of loved ones who have passed. By provoking sensuous re-awakenings, I became enthralled with enlivening memories of lost ones by reconnecting with my own physical record of their presence.

Figure 24: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2018. Is There Any Body Home: Anything lived into long enough becomes an orchard.

Figure 25: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2018. Is There Any Body Home: Sensuous Reawakenings & Unfoldings. Installation view.

2) Data collection

Aesthetic wandering:

Sensuous Re-Awakenings.

To create this specific body of work, I rummaged through old souvenir boxes in search of six meaningful mementos passed on from generation to generation. Motivated by a desire to steer away from language and embrace materiality in order to physically remember, this quest, was spontaneous and non-reflective. I chose and revisited each keepsake for its potency to transubstantiate vivid memories of past encounters. I then invested in them physically with touch, smell, and taste in pursuit of appropriation. A porcelain cup was no longer my grandmother’s cup. Rather it became, through physical and emotional transference, a vessel of vivid emotional resonance.

Unfoldings: Because there is no getting away from language…

These six semantic offerings unfolded discreetly as I recalled former experiences related to the chosen mementos. Printed on velum paper and pinned to one of the gallery walls as whispers, the poems were constructed from chimeras and hauled along by fragments of past emotions. These slanted utterances were designed to stand-alone or guide interpretations of the exhibited sculptural forms. The choice was intentionally left to the viewer.

Anything lived into long enough becomes an orchard: Because bodies transform,

regenerate and are forever evolving…

Manifesting through bacterial form, cultures in petri dishes became portraits of the deceased, plentiful, and life-generating occurrences. Swiped from the same mementos used throughout the installation, spread and then left to grow on agar-agar, this last body of work was

34 created to offer respite in knowing that loved ones are still with us, through objects, in the most unexpected places and unusual ways.

Immersion / circumscription:

As I manipulated objects, I sensed new creative outlets connecting to the most vulnerable parts of myself. Delving further into each emotion, the process became deeply personal as I began feeling exposed and vulnerable. Incidentally linking sculptural forms to deep emotional states, I began to correspondingly investigate how I could inflict residual pain, succumb to tenderness, inject joy, conjure melancholia; these became the intended goals of this specific case study.

Similarly, studio work was mainly intended to convey emotion, to infer breathing rhythms, and to invite the viewer to an intimate organic dance.

As I gathered thoughts and impressions, it became clear I needed a way to catalogue all the information I was collecting. Therefore, I decided to create and maintain a visual journal in the form of a blog to help record and organize all my findings. (see Appendix 1 for visuals or visit the blog at this address: https://eveprovostchartrand.wordpress.com/).

3) Data analysis

In depth study:

Preliminary research is always in a visual format in my process. To initiate reflection and complement further experiences and creations in the making, pieces must cause a spark and excite me. Research for this case study provided and enriched visual and conceptual ideas related to my on-going study of forms and materials as well as expanded my knowledge of skills.

Within this case study, my main aim was to quilt together expectations, personal history, and kindred spirits, as well as olfactive and tactile memories associated with objects. Upon death, as physical presence disappears, mementos often provide the deceased with a social presence amongst the living (Hallam 2001) and become a bastion against forgetfulness. These keepsakes, worn garments, letters, photographs reveal that the processes related to remembering may be even more than the dead. I felt that the objects used in these works became pretexts to highlight states of physicality associated with significant, lasting events in my life.

My intent was to recreate sculptural immanence, indwelling for the mind anchored in physicality and matter. I counted on the fact that each one of us had physical memories associated with meaningful objects and events to capture the bystander’s interest and create a shared space of recollection.

Incubation period:

Generated by contemporary considerations of the human body and its relationship to the natural/material world, I attempted to steer clear of considerations foreseeing the body as a mere product of cultural factors and claimed their affiliation to an earthy embodiment. By recounting bodily experiences and phenomenological impressions of significant objects, I aimed at redefining my knowledge of fleshy bodies, transgressing amid known boundaries of representation, and suggesting a more encompassing view of the corporeal.

4) Creative Data Synthesis

Experimentation:

The challenge was to create metaphysical instances that would be ultimately visited by consciousness. These material vessels would serve as bearers of memories and experiences.

Preoccupied by the overbearing symbolic aspects of the selected mementos, I decided to cast the objects in wax and emphasize their imprints as well, delving into materiality first, outside of intention.

I explored ways of inhabiting negative spaces, making them potential receptacles of physical presence, meaningful voids awaiting interpretation. I explored geometrical forms

(shapes echoing motifs observed in nature) to nest the imprints and infer internal, pre-cognitive, and ontological logic to the process. I considered intervening plastically inside and outside those waxy structures to speak to the body’s past sensory presence and reflected on the relevance of such structures. Likewise, by experimenting with creative writing, I linked the sculptural to unfathomable emotional states. The departed slowly manifested themselves through my body’s memory, unexpectedly and forcibly. I felt on the verge of forsaking imaginary constructions as I got in touch with palpable, embodied presences I have been carrying (and negating) on my own skin. Centering my practice around my body’s own ability to feel and experience sensually connected me to my own surroundings, but also to others, more efficiently and facilitated connecting to memory of those long passed.

Figure 26: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2018.Is There Any Body Home? Specimen 1: a brooch

Figure 27: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2018.Is There Any Body Home? Specimen 2: dentures.

Figure 28: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2018. Is There Any Body Home? Specimen 3: a teacup.

Figure 29: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2018.Is There Any Body Home? Specimen 4: an ear trumpet.

Figure 30: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2018.Is There Any Body Home? Specimen 5: a hairbrush.

Figure 31: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2018. Is There Any Body Home? Specimen 6: infant wear.

Summary

Done over the course of the summer for my independent study class, these visual declinations explored multiple channels of creation; from sculptural form to creative writing and a tentative dive into bio art. The goal was to navigate the varied aspects of grieving and sought ways to investigate loss to offer healing. Likewise, creating ambiguous “things” that

“presented” a reality, instead of representing one, seemed to spark the viewers’ curiosity and sense of play, and helped them deal with otherwise difficult emotions related to grief; the creative writings correspondingly instigated emotional release for some viewers who choose to get involved.

Cogitation/Assessment

This case study is relevant to my process because it explores how intuition and insight might work as acts of apprehending abstract concepts. By emphasizing the ascendance of the physical body over the intellect as a potential channel for the elusive, I have proposed new and fertile avenues where bodies and nature not only cohabit, but also merge, and permeate each other. By attempting to focus on relationships that waver between presence and materiality, I have tried to put forward “presence-based approaches” (Gumbrecht as cited in Kramer 2009), while also considering the meaning of objects.

By paying more attention to the implications of physical encounters and bodily experiences in the gallery space, I also stressed the importance of being-in-the-world and have access to realities beyond appearances, on a pre-conceptual level.

Chapter 5: Case Study no. 4: Aggregates. Fall 2018

Figure 32: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2018. Exhibition poster.

The fourth case study was presented in The Little Gallery, in the fall of 2018, as a solo show. Aggregates revealed the unfolding story of illness and how one’s ageing body, under the medical gaze, is left unseen and unrecognized as sentient. Four works - two sculptural pieces laid out in the center of the gallery and two wall pieces - waited to be experienced by the viewer.

Processes of layering, interlacing, and repetition were applied in varying degrees to achieve complexity and create cohesion and tension. Multiple forms of presentation provided context to each piece. Lighting, for instance, was used as an aesthetic and signifying tool to alter the presence and mood of immersive environments.

Figure 33: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2018. Aggregates. Installation view.

1) Mise-en-situation

Through installation strategies, I explored how bodies were left feeling objectified and

emotionally muzzled by the therapeutic gaze and how emotional bodies left untended, uncared

for, became “spectacles of illness” (Didi-Huberman 1982) instead of empowered singularities.

Figure 34: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2018. Aggregates: Host. Photo credit: Mercedes Webb.

After spending much of the previous case study experimenting in the studio, this process was largely coloured by readings encountered while researching matters of embodiment through themes of trauma, illness and grief. My own disease-altered body brought on my searches for novel visual strategies. Works, mostly composed of organic matter and set against medical paraphernalia, were created to recall traumas aggregating and overwhelming feelings of disembodiment.

2) Data collection

Aesthetic wandering:

Preoccupied by my latest ordeals with the medical system and recent readings on the anticipatory corpse and medical ethics (Bishop 2011), I carried my burdened shell of a body back into the studio. I started instinctively playing with collected matter around me. Organic fragments, from previous experimentations left unattended on the floor suddenly regained importance through the lens of projection. I started revisiting my own vernacular, hoping for that

Ah-Ha moment to come about. As a looked closer, I discovered, hidden in creases, living moss, and tiny mushrooms growing from decay. I felt transformed. Feelings of disembodiment generated by recent events were slowly being obliterated by these subtle yet empowering growths. I was compelled to look attentively.

Figure 36: Coffin trolley. Retrieved from: https://www.ceabis.it/eng/handling-and-recovery-equipment/extensible- Figure 35: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2018. Is There coffin-trolleys-handling-of-coffins.html. Any Body Home?

Concurrently, I began seeking objects that would represent the harshness of medical intervention

(hence the coffin trolley suggesting hospital or morgue gurneys) opposing the holistic quality of the body.

Immersion/circumscription:

In this installation, I decided to challenge the normalcy narrative, which celebrates the healthy male body as the social standard, by presenting solely female-subject-objects engaging with old age and/or illness. Nonetheless, for the concealed body to speak, to manifest itself, I had to find ways to elicit a voice, a desire to come forth.

Figure 37: Provost Chartrand, Eve, 2018. Aggregates: Material Agency.

Leder’s accounts of the interoceptive nature of the body (1990) and its predisposition to reveal itself through pain, provided means of visibility for an otherwise recessive body.

Compared to the social body, which tends to conceal dysfunction, the biological body brings faulty viscera to attention in a sense of urgency that requires attention in order to survive.

By exhibiting entrails, I intended to redirect attention to “corporeal depths” (1990) and steer away from the surface usually invested by representation. I applied visual metaphors and metalepsis to realign displaced identities onto the perceptual axis. Defective bodies (1990), put forward in my work, not only mirror the anguish brought on by isolation and rejection, but also become generative and revealing entities. This is made possible by placing them into unusual contexts where they can thrive.

Berlinde De Bruyckere and Eve Hesse’s productions have been determinant in the making of this iteration. Their artistic manifestations astonishingly question normative representations of the body and unquestionably defy dehumanizing gazes of otherness by re- inscribing distinct experiences into shared materiality. By showing what is inside, underneath the skin – flesh, organs, fluids - and by celebrating the abject and the improper body as uprisings against beautification, De Bruckere and Hesse inspired me to embrace formlessness to offer a more ethical presentation of bodies.

Figure 38: De Bruyckere, Berlinde. 2007/08. In Doubt. Figure 39: Hesse, Eva. 1970. No Title. Retrieved from: Retrieved from: https://www.museum-joanneum.at/ https://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/Hesse-s-sculpture-one- last-look-Artist-s-2879525.php.

Following their lead by taking the body apart and proposing fragments of embodied void (void of representation but charged with meaning), I summoned viewers to lose their sense of identity momentarily to explore what lies at the very depths of being, where commonalities rest and thrive. De Bruyckere and Hesse’s works (and hopefully mine at some point) require viewers to rethink how they conceive bodily representations and invite them to scrutinize their own prejudices and misconceptions. By providing liminal spaces prone to reverence, it is my belief that bereavement of the social body occurs to facilitate the revelation and celebration of a new non-judgmental, undifferentiated ontological self, one that is grounded, welcoming, and beautifully imperfect.

In this case study, I sought to explore again if autobiographical accounts of physical transformations resulting from recent encounters with illness would engage the viewer in a possible and much needed dialogue. Indeed, by choosing to interweave autobiographical stories of estrangement to their discourse, researchers (Simplican 2017, Dykstra 1995) were successful in unsettling disabled / able binaries and challenging social exclusion. Since life-stories often evoked feelings of compassion, care, and empathy, researchers have found that such efforts had the potential to create inclusive understandings of “variant ways-of-being in the world”

(Gumbretch as cited in Kramer 2009). Self-disclosure is therefore celebrated as a compelling method of including new stories and resisting seclusion as it seeks out and legitimizes moments of difference and awkwardness.

Figure 40: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2018. Aggregates: Elegy.

Figure 41: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2018. Aggregates: Inoculation.

3) Data analysis

In depth study:

Susan Wendell uses the “negative body to refer to those aspects of bodily life (such as illness, disability, weakness, and dying), bodily appearance (usually deviations from the cultural ideals of the body), and bodily experience (including most forms of bodily suffering) that are feared, ignored, despised, and/or rejected in a society and its culture” (Wendell 1996). Her definition is more attuned to my overall concerns of inclusivity than Hughes’, which had informed my work up to that point. Hughes’ work is still of great importance to my process; the dialogue he has initiated between disability and the sociology of the body has been essential in

54 isolating and denouncing paternalistic applications of tropes fostering “potentially dangerously neglectful material realities of exclusion and oppression that are the ubiquitous bedfellows of disability” (Hughes 2007). Furthermore, and echoing comments initially discussed by Hughes,

Carolin Ahlvik-Harju’s denunciation of social rationales and the way that views of marginalized bodies advise human relations and shape and/or deny identities have been helpful in refining my argument. Discussing how socially validated norms, grounded in prevalent ideas of the “able- bodied, rational, male-subject”, have become the standard for the convenient and socially acceptable body, Ahlvik-Harju has shed light on the “normalcy narrative” (2015) and its detrimental effects on deviant bodies.

Incubation period:

As I had experienced how my own body was transformed into a negative body (Wendell

1996) through illness and ageing, it had thus become imperative for me to understand how processes related to ageing cause the misrecognition of divergent bodies. Unfortunately, my recent health tribulations had given me a taste of what it is to be considered an “anticipatory corpse” (Bishop 2011), a body in waiting of ageing and dying, a ghostly fleshly envelop whom we negate the right to relate and feel. I have learned that a body resisting persistent care (or healing) becomes rapidly a broken, estranged tool for medical personnel “despite the fact that the body carries in its sinews, its histories, and its capacities and potencies the directedness toward some particular project from some purpose ” (Bishop 2011). Bodies matter: Marginalized bodies, ill bodies, forgotten, elderly and differently-abled bodies, and non-human bodies. In life and in death, it is my belief that all corporealities can be awakened suddenly through generative processes, celebrated, and reflected upon.

In conjunction with explorations of abjection, Brown’s considerations on “thingness”

(2001) proved to be highly inspirational and in tune with what I was trying to accomplish in the studio previously. This was namely understanding the object / body as an instance in waiting, a sensuous vessel imprinted upon by often unseen, unspecified, or unnoticed actors closely related to the surrounding space, beyond their sheer utilization and commodity status.

Recent reviews of Barad’s Posthumanist Performativity (2008) manuscript and Alaimo’s

Trans-Corporeal feminisms (2008) essay made me understand how Brown’s “romantic idea of substance existing prior to social inscription” actually strips negative bodies of their right to display traces of “history, social position, region, and the uneven distribution of risk” (Alaimo

2008). Since the notion of “thingnification - this turning of relations into “things”, “entities,” and

“relata” - infects much of the way we understand the world and our relationship to it (Barad

2008), it was more than relevant to develop and sustain an object-based practice that was henceforth immersed in the contextual that allowed for “differential becomings” (130). In that respect, and from that point on, my installations explored visual strategies that allowed me to defy limited anthropomorphic views. Anker (2015) pointed out brilliantly in her research how such assessments falsify or alter phenomenological experiences of nature and might steer viewers away from a place of origin situated in the body, a place where materiality has agency and relates with its surroundings.

In order to survive self-deprecation, it also became crucial to find ways of revisiting what was considered abject. More than just accepting physical changes and transformations, I wanted to explore thingness as an artistic proposition and celebrate more compassionate presentations of divergent bodies registered in time and affect through their materiality. Once more, I played on what was not revealed and what might be lost in negative spaces to register histories and

56 experiences of uniqueness while simultaneously offering unindividuated objects that speak to everyone.

Figure 42: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2018. Aggregates: Material Agency. Photo credit: Mercedes Webb.

4) Creative Data Synthesis

Experimentation:

Because every thought known to us occurs to a flesh to cite Merleau-Ponty (as cited by

Bigwood 1991), I was yet again being attentive to sensuous, molecular impressions, but also vibrations of previous experiences inscribed on the body. Throughout this installation, I proposed incarnations of otherwise hidden presences by using vintage fabrics as material records of the subject’s histories. Embodied metaphors of the primeval and visual recurrences of motifs, materials, and colours were laid out spatially to give a sense of discrete bodies that were

57 otherwise almost imperceptible. By instilling humanity in those rather formless things, I intentionally gave a voice to the unheard and compelled viewers to viscerally engage with them.

The encaustic medium has so far allowed me to mimic, almost viscerally, sensations of repulsion often unconsciously associated with deviant bodies. Yet, it became important to combine the medium’s abject quality to well-crafted objects to celebrate the monstrous in a tamable way. Such alliances allowed me to ponder new paradigms of being, grounded in the

“chimeric” (Bec 2006) and the poetic, and propose sensuous iterations that seduce and lure in audiences despite their abhorrence.

Figure 43: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2018. Aggregates: Material Agency.

Accordingly, I created appealing molten bodies visited and marked by tragedies: I produced these “things” to commemorate vulnerability. Instead of being constrained abject

58 vessels bearing prejudices, they proposed visual metaphors of embodied resilience. Visually speaking, it was also my wish to contrast vibrant living matter to decay and abjection in order to condemn discriminative attitudes by offering regenerative, empowered views of deviant bodies.

In wanting to highlight what is typically cast in the shadows and propose works that open that region of potentiality, enabling the search for a common dimension, I allowed “fragmentation to be overcome, and commonality within dissimilarity to be experienced” (Mengoni 2014).

Summary

Echoing Caruth’s work on trauma, the goal of this installation was to make the viewer cognizant of “modes of reading and listening, that both the language of trauma and the silence of its mute repetition of suffering, profoundly and imperatively demand” (Caruth 2016).

Cogitation / Assessment

This creative study confirmed visual choices I have made; withal, it helped me answer questions related to the implications of an ill body being labelled as negative and avowed solutions of empowerment through an acceptance of “what is”. In light of these findings, I moved forward with confidence in the design of my MFA thesis shows. It will be necessary to explore audience reception strategies further in order to improve viewers’ participation and continue perfecting my craft.

Figure 44: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2019. Phagein

I completed the two last case studies, The Saprotrophic Body and Bacterial Landscapes simultaneously as part of my MFA Thesis Show. Both iterations similarly discussed the implications of current negative body definitions in middle-aged women’s lives on self-identity and agency. The works challenged the idea that ageing is intrinsically defined by disability, ontological decay, and death. They differed visually mainly as a result of the venues and targeted audiences. The sixth case study was displayed at the Sheldon M. Chumir Centre, located in downtown Calgary, and was viewed by the general public and clients of the Health Centre. The seventh was created for the University of Calgary’s Little Gallery and intended for scholars and peers.

Chapter 6: Case Study no. 5: Bacterial Landscapes. Summer & Fall 2019.

Figure 45: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2019. Exhibition poster.

1) Mise-en-situation

This case study took shape when an opportunity to show work at the Sheldon M. Chumir

Centre presented itself. The challenge was to conceive artwork that would be foremost accessible to the general public and actively seize life by forging specific types of allegories. These metaphors conjugated the life force of old age with excessive declination of materials. The five sculptures were exhibited in five windows overlooking a street in downtown Calgary. This limited the audience’s participation with and input on the pieces and therefore assumed a more traditional artistic viewpoint.

Figure 46: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2019. Sheldon M. Chumir Centre. Installation view.

2) Data Collection

Aesthetic wandering:

Information gathered from case study number three and four, titled respectively Is There

Any Body Home and Aggregates, instigated the present case study. These two previous case

62 studies engaged with the general public while still conveying significant information. In the same vein as Inoculation (see Fig. 42, p.53), a work that showed enlarged MRI scans of a tumour extirpated from my own uterus, deconstructed, and mounted on microscopic slices, Bacterial

Landscapes offered microscopic views of bacterial cultures presenting the body beyond what we usually define as key identity markers2.

In the studio, for the past six months, I replicated experiments conveyed in case study number three. I swabbed, at different times, different parts of my body, applying and growing bacteria on agar-agar in order to gain access to my internal flora. I created my own intimate bacterial samples over time, ones that bore my genetic signature. Subsequently, digital manipulations and artistic interventions on the photographed bacterial cultures summoned the viewers to reflect on the fact that one might still be fully generating life, even in their most intimate, infirmed interoceptive parts.

2 Such as gender, social class, age, sexual orientation, race and ethnicity, religion, age and disability.

Figure 47: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2019. Bacterial Landscapes.

Immersion / Circumscription:

As I become older and perceive the finiteness of my lifetime, everything becomes more complex, complicated yet remarkably simplified. My body transforms as it degenerates.

Compared to youth, the flesh scrolls and wrinkles are excessive. Ear lobes and nose grow longer, teeth are lost, weight is gained, and desire flees. The corporeal ends up weighing me down; bones become brittle and falter. Yet, all this excess does not amount to overexposure. On the contrary, it leads to invisibility and oversimplified narratives summed up by one biased word: old.

Seeing artist Nick Cave perform with agility and grace, encumbered by the weight of his excessively decorated sound suits informed the genesis of the present case study. The amalgam of bright, colourful objects upcycled into Cave’s ceremonial performative attire concealed the strenuous efforts of his skillful deambulations in space. As I watched the artist dance, each movement, marked by exertion and excess (of form, gesture and matter), became a metaphor of my quest to define myself outside normalized constructs. Until now, these constructs have considered my ageing body as either marked by disease and/or in need of repair (Olivier & Lalik

64 as cited in Springgay 2004). Despite having to deploy intense and enduring physical efforts,

Cave’s processions are odes to joy, remembrance, and life; they are also metaphors of resistance.

Inspired by Joseph Beuys’s notion of “social sculpture” (Durini 2010), where art has the potential to transform our environment and attempts to structure and shape society, Cave’s metamorphoses suggest how ideas and objects are in continuous relation to a wide range of actions and worlds that fall outside the realm of tangible things.

Figure 48: Cave, Nick. 2009/2011. Sound suits.

3) Data Analysis

In depth study:

Writings from Abram and Bigwood grounded my research as I pursued my reflection on how to extend the body’s boundaries beyond representation. David Abram’s teachings from the fields of anthropology, philosophy, linguistics, cognitive psychology, environmental science, and the world of rituals, establish associations between culture, language, humans and their surroundings, and beyond. By working alongside shamans, medicine men, and healers, and by studying the relationship between folk medicine and practical magic, the author reveals how western culture tends to sever itself from the sensual world by fostering the egotistic, disembodied world of abstraction and logic inherited from Plato (Abram 1997). For Abram, physical awakenings have the potential to make us more aware of the non-human world. This other world is a world that breathes, suffers, and is integral to our whole being and essential to our survival as a species.

Likewise, and far from seeing the body as a mere product of cultural determinants, Carol

Bigwood’s essay (1991) discusses how the resulting “denaturalization” of the body has entrapped generations of thinkers in the on-going, sterile nature / culture dichotomy. Revisiting

Merleau-Ponty’s texts on the phenomenology of the body, Bigwood is not afraid to revindicate the earthy significance of embodiment. By recounting her own bodily experiences through illness and ageing, she redefines her knowledge of the body, transgresses known boundaries, and suggests a more encompassing view of the corporeal.

Incubation period:

I was strongly inspired by works of favoured artists David Altmejd and Doreen Garner, in the studio as I experimented with materials with an “anything goes” attitude, without judgment or expectations. Driven by new insights fueled by the concept of excess3 (Springgay 2004), a plethora of materials were used to capture the audience’s attention and invite viewers to decipher the crafted objects through which the senses were roused.

Figure 49: Altmejd, David, 2003. Untitled-Black-V3-JE3. Retrieved from: https://flux.macm.org/en/the-gallery/untitled-black/

3 Springgay explains how visual excess in art is a powerful pedagogical tool; it promotes curiosity and gives way to further examination. Material excess arouses the viewer’s bodily senses “relocating the body as relational and intercorporeal”.

Figure 50: Garner, Doreen. 2015. NEO (PLASM). Retrieved from: http://www.doreengarner.com/abjection

At this stage of the visual research, study on form and materiality prevailed. My main concern was to juxtapose and assemble successfully unusual shapes and objects to make the grotesque become familiar and agreeable while sustaining an element of surprise. Previous case studies have shown that viewers are intrigued by the unexpected if it is somewhat familiar and/or manageable. The goal was to create visual effervescent organic structures that allowed the conveyed message to shine through by capturing the viewers’ imagination and interest long enough.

Figure 51: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2019. Bacterial Landscapes

4) Data Creative Synthesis

Experimentation:

Initially, digitally transformed images of photographed bacterial cultures were created considering elements/materials previously collected for their texture, their history, their aesthetic quality and etymological value. The final images were subsequently printed on vinyl and applied on plexiglass sheets; plastic interventions happened later with varied materials. From yarn to beads, to encaustics and plastics, the goal was to craft intricate pieces where the multiplicity of decorative elements opened space for innovative and subversive uses of everyday materials.

Echoing works of rococo influence done in previous case studies, extravagance of forms and repetitions echoed the ostensible excesses of ageing bodies dealing with the complexities of degeneration and illness. Experimentations finally culminated in a meticulous work of assembly giving birth to creations that called for rejoicing, and reflection. By elevating craft to the realm of art, I intended to elevate the negative body into the realm of the munificent living.

Figure 52: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2019. Bacterial Landscapes.

Summary

By presenting works that were familiar but also demanded further examination, and by embracing an aesthetics that fostered curiosity and pleasure instead of revolt or disgust, unexpected aspects of ageing bodies were revealed. Intended for the general public, these works distanced themselves from the abject and embraced more seductive, palatable visuals. Inspired by Cave’s exquisite craftsmanship, as I was previously by Coyne’s work, I provided viewers an

“entry point through craft” (Leblanc 2019) to underlying darker issues tackled throughout my research-creation.

Cogitation/Assessment

By proposing sculptures where material excesses mimicked intra-cellular proliferation and evoked growth and regeneracy, I aimed to destigmatize ageing bodies by showing their bountiful abundance and generative processes. By acknowledging “life-bound beings” (Déry

2006) and impelling life-changing metamorphosed energies, Bacterial Landscapes defied the idea that ageing should be solely defined by ontological decay, and death.

Chapter 7: Case Study No. 6: The Saprotrophic Body. Summer 2019.

Figure 53: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2019. Exhibition poster.

1) Mise-en-situation

Previous case studies prompted the need to research how to actively engage participants in a dialogue regarding old age to challenge misconceptions about women’s negative bodies. I first experimented with aesthetics, through the choice of the rococo genre and the abject form as main motifs. Then, I put fallow bodies on stage to provoke inquisitiveness and questioning.

Finally, I hinted at the implicit material agency of transforming bodies to inspire curiosity and initiate a sense of play in viewers. I continuously pushed boundaries to propose a field of

“interpretive possibilities” (Pousseur 1958) and extended an “explicit invitation to the viewers to exercise choice” (Eco 1989). Consequently, work on the narrative structure of this last iteration revolved around an undirected intake of the work as a last attempt to validate my conceptual and aesthetic choices, and their potency to evoke and transmute autonomously.

2) Data Collection

Aesthetic wandering:

The Saprotrophic Body replicated strategies rendered successfully in previous case studies: the contrast of manufactured, sterilized materials against organic matter worked well to translate the cultural dissonance pertaining to misconceptions of ageing; hunts in antique malls and at private auctions were productive. I was able to find objects, fetishized shrines that potentially evoked a sense of corporeal memory reverting to organic remains through their decaying core.

Since I intended to continue working with living matter, the use of a green house and watering devices became necessary tools to foster plant growth. Because my goal was to let the

73 viewer experience the intrinsic rhythm of the space, I looked for tools, objects, and components that would allude to the harvesting process, without the presence of the artist-maker.

Figure 54: Found objects and Green House.

Immersion / Circumscription:

Sonja Bäumel’s practice, spanning varied disciplines including art, design, fashion, and the biological, echoes my concerns, and has been instrumental in the conception of this case study. She creates spaces where the body is entangled and interconnected with its living environment and inhabited by shared microbial species. This prompted me to reconsider the human anatomy as an ever continuing and unified part of the overall landscape, shifting its stance from the individual limited by finitude to a cohabitating, co-habituating, integrated, and immortal entity that constantly mingles and adapts to its ever-changing surroundings. Bäumel’s corporeal beings ethically and brilliantly question the boundaries that our body maintains with

74 other bodies (human and non-human ones) and interrogates our relationship with the overall biological matrix of our universe.

Figure 55: Baumel, Sonja. 2015. Expanded Self II. Retrieved from: http://www.sonjabaeumel.at/

By staging an environment in the gallery that seems virtually autonomous, requiring minimal interference on my part, I highlighted the fact that natural systems transform and evolve outside social constructs and that organisms generate and grow outside of interpretation. I also obliged viewers to be accountable for their intake of the work, metaphorically linking their involvement with their sensitivity to issues related to ageing.

3) Data Analysis

In depth study:

Adorno’s reflections on the Holocaust, as cited by Hunh (Anker 2015) deepened my thinking on viewers’ response to dread and steered me away from presenting objects overly

75 defined by dejection. Contemplating how fear of the other, resentment, and self-preservation might encapsulate humans in apathy that keeps them from living and being in touch with others,

Hunh expands Ahlvik-Harju’s “normalcy narrative” (Ahlvik-Harju 2015) with an “indifference narrative”. Hunh’s “indifference narrative” urged me to create spaces and things that lead the viewer to adopt more compassionate behaviors and experience a shared communal space, mediated by encounters.

By creating an atmosphere that facilitated gatherings and intimate sharing, The

Saprotrophic Body served as a platform to raise social consciousness and for potential transformation. Closer to Joseph Beuys’ or Thomas Hirschhorn’s demarche, than to that of

Rirkrit Tiravanija, my work assumed the risk of attempting to re-define constructs regarding ageing. Hence, instead of offering merely a greeting space that produced human interactions that risked being insignificant, the installation referred to my ideal of socially engaged art. The multifaceted interface of the social, political, ethical, and aesthetic serves as a catalyst for change in this model.

Incubation period:

A germinating inkling that had been lingering in the shadows for a while resurfaced.

Born from the need to communicate how older bodies are still sources of renewal, wonder, and agency, I once had the whimsical idea of generating and harvesting food from my sculptures to feed the audience. Reading Nicolas Bourriaud’s essay on Relational Aesthetics (2002) provided guidance and conceptual grounds to materialize this encounter with viewers. From experiencing the space by walking through it to then sitting by the gisant and eating a meal cooked with produce harvested from the sculpture, this installation proposed a “period of time to be lived

76 through, like an opening to unlimited discussion” (Bourriaud 2002). Transforming viewers into participants unsettled their accustomed passivity and nurtured forms of exchange where the installation became a living, breathing platform for encounters and discussions.

Exploring relational works and the social dimensions of participation was formative and necessary. I was specifically captivated by Thailand-based artist Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook’s videos. Although her work is more about cohabitation (she reads to cadavers) than participation, her performances still challenge viewers’ moral sense and tolerance through multifaceted interventions and metaphors. Her installations denounce her own culture’s maladaptive and destructive attitudes toward death. They explore interactions between opposing but related realms such as life and death while revisiting and redefining concurrently the meaning of fringe.

Figure 56: Rasdjarmrearnsook, Araya. 2005. Reading Poems to Female Corpses. http://withreferencetodeath.philippocock.net/blog/rasdjarmrearnsook-araya-reading-corpses-to-female-corpses-2005

Similar preoccupations defined my work; I also challenged misconceptions and exposed viewers to thought-provoking encompassing metaphors of marginal bodies and their relationship to ageing and death. Containing life as it manifests before our eyes, the greenhouse thus served not only as a nourishing hub literally but as a testimonial space of concentrated, latent energy where transformation was captured and experienced.

Figure 57: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2019. The Saprotrophic Body.

4) Creative Data Synthesis

Experimentation:

Experimentation on habitat, in the use of materials, and growing organic matter such as mushrooms, kombucha, fresh herbs, and flowers happened simultaneously. The intent was not

78 only to make significant evocative visual choices, but to also provide a bountiful harvest at the moment of the exhibition.

Figure 58: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2019. Harvest.

Food prep in the kitchen gave rise to simple yet delicious meals composed of harvested ingredients grown in the greenhouse. I looked closely at how ingredients could be harvested responsibly and effectively: a composting station set up in the gallery space promoted sustainable farming by allowing the recycling of discarded organic waste; having multiple mushroom farms producing at different pace assured an equivalent distribution of resources over the span of one month.

Phagein

Figure 59: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2019. Phagein.

As I researched recipes and ways of presenting food, I also reflected on ways to occupy the greenhouse and how guests would be fed. Because I had previously decided to erase myself as much as possible from the exhibiting process, I minimally scripted a delegated performance where an elderly woman harvested the food that I ended up cooking in the background. The goal was to confront visitors with the seeming paradox of the elderly being bountiful and wholesome.

The hired model was shrouded by silence; in the nude, wearing only a plastic, transparent apron and matching overshoes, she posed as an ethereal figure. She enacted cultural assumptions about ageing that consider elders as “lapses of discourse, obscene and hence censured, deprived

80 of language, unnamable” (Certeau1984) because they are incapable of fulfilling society’s expectations. Once the model finished harvesting produce and dressed, she was invited, along with guests, to share a meal, stay longer and share experiences, reflections pertaining to life, death, illness, and ageing.

Summary

Understanding that the goal of relational aesthetics is to expand the boundaries of art beyond the object to take in human relations motivated by the production and reception of art, it was then difficult to fully identify with Bourriaud’s relational method. The fact that the art object was utilized as a catalyst in this case study, and because any artwork unavoidably bears an enunciative gesture, it became impossible to overlook the artist’s intent.

Figure 60: Provost Chartrand, Eve. 2019. The Saprotrophic Body.

The installation did celebrate the importance of the “rendez-vous, of creating areas of conviviality and the way it formed relational dimensions” (Bourriaud 2002) but did so en presence des objects. As an art maker, I am still very much attached to the crafted object and a firm believer in its transgressive attributes, but I am also looking forward to exploring various types of participation and interaction as forms of collaboration.

Cogitation / Assessment

What are the specific implications to self-identity and agency of current negative body definitions in Western, post-industrial societies in middle-aged women’s lives? How can we challenge the idea that ageing is intrinsically defined by disability, ontological decay, and death?

This sixth case study attended closely to my research question while also providing positive outlooks led by relational and participatory aspects of the work. My goal was to destigmatize ageing bodies by inscribing them in bountiful “livingness” by proposing an installation where “living things” were central (organic matter as well as participating guests).

By immersing visitors in a situation that potentially created malaise, my intent was to have participants question their own plural contradictions and bring cultural axioms related to old age to light. Furthermore, by giving them a chance to utter pain, anguish, and despair en presence de and eat from the gisant, I re-inscribed the ageing self into the commonplace. The Saprotrophic

Body thus promoted a “conjuncture of survival […] a state of renewal that combines with the present” (Déry 2006) by putting lingering, blooming, corporeal, and embodied things in relationship to the living.

Conclusion

Applying a case study methodology to research creation has been both challenging, and rewarding. It provided a formal structure to an otherwise equivocal creative process in building a concrete path for problem solving. This proved helpful when doubt and indecisiveness could have brought efforts to a halt. Replicating visual strategies and validating their effectiveness over time was uplifting. These small achievements bolstered confidence in the work, whilst disappointments catalysed further experimentation and personal growth that unfailingly led to additional discovery.

These creative case studies were based upon the common practice of generalizing on the ground of previous experience and knowledge and “allowed for the possible significant circumstances of surprising phenomenon to be gathered and considered, until a conjecture furnished some possible explanation of it” (Peirce 1908). Their validity consisted in the fact that the research-creation process gave temporary results that might have been incorrect, yet because it was steadily pursued over time in a specific manner, it eventually rendered some consistent findings. Based on these findings, data synthesis provided grounds for further work aimed at discovering temporary truths, to be yet again validated by inductive reasoning.

Projecting solutions, paired with Moustakas’ heuristic method, allowed me to gather extensive knowledge on subject matters attuned to my research-creation and enabled refinement and discernment of effective creative strategies. The creative case study methodology complemented my research process and studio work and provided a safe environment where creativity and intuition were nurtured based on knowledge.

The first case study Conservo, the choice of rococo aesthetics, its overwhelming, over ornate, superfluous, too-much-of-everything style, mimicked the densification of old age I

83 experienced while visiting nursing homes. Likewise, the genre was used to echo metaphorically medical prejudices stating that old age is analogous to biological chaos (Vincent 2006); finally, it replicated the ageing body’s ontological complexity, emphasizing its lurid attributes. The use of organic components such as traditional healing herbs and foods, bones, and the repetition of motifs such as flowers and vintage textiles, anchored the works in the vernacular, making it more accessible, palatable, and relatable. Reflecting on the installation, I now realize that these pieces offered subtle readings without directly calling the viewer into action. If my work wants to actively address and challenge misconceptions of ageing, thus answering matters relevant to my research-creation, it would need to be more discerning and somewhat adamant to provoke reactions and initiate reflection.

The second case study Exposed yet unseen was an exploration of loss of identity in medical settings, loss of social relevancy related to misconceptions of old age, isolation, and expected death. Yet, with this installation, I also wished to draw attention to how life reveals itself in unexpected ways if we dare to look further and beyond what is superficially exposed and expected, thus challenging ideas that ageing is intrinsically defined by ontological decay and death. The installation tried to reconcile what we choose to see, ignore, what is culturally constructed to what is innate and inescapable. Such preoccupations are in tune with my research concerns because they relate to the scope of my artistic production, and directly address the participatory aspect of the viewing, which is essential for the work to be socially transformative.

Viewers engaging with the work by watering growing plants provoked me to consider the possibilities of interaction and play as ways of further engaging the audience. Future works would explore harvesting and themes of nourishment and maintenance as they all pertain to the idea of ageing.

The third case study, Is there Any Body Home?, is relevant to my process because it explores how intuition and insight might work as acts of apprehending abstract concepts. By emphasizing the ascendance of the physical body over the intellect as a potential channel for the elusive, I have proposed new and fertile avenues where bodies and nature not only cohabit, but also merge, and permeate each other. By attempting to focus on relationships that waver between presence and materiality, I have tried to put forward “presence-based approaches” (Gumbrecht as cited in Kramer 2009), while also considering the meaning of objects. By paying more attention to the implications of physical encounters and bodily experiences in the gallery space, I also stressed the importance of being-in-the-world and have access to realities beyond appearances, on a pre-conceptual level.

The fourth case study Aggregates confirmed visual choices I have made; withal, it helped me answer questions related to the implications of an ill body being labelled as negative and avowed solutions of empowerment through an acceptance of “what is”. In light of these findings,

I moved forward with confidence in the design of my MFA thesis shows. It was necessary to explore audience reception strategies in order to improve viewers’ participation and continue perfecting my craft.

The fifth case study Bacterial Landscapes proposed sculptural works where material excesses mimicked intra-cellular proliferation and evoked growth and regeneracy, I aimed to destigmatise ageing bodies by showing their bountiful abundance and generative processes. By

85 acknowledging “life-bound beings” (Déry 2006) and impelling life-changing metamorphosed energies, Bacterial Landscapes defied the idea that ageing should be solely defined by ontological decay, and death.

The sixth case study The Saprotrophic Body attended closely to my research question while also providing positive outlooks led by relational and participatory aspects of the work.

My goal was to destigmatise ageing bodies by inscribing them in bountiful “livingness” by proposing an installation where “living things” were central (organic matter as well as participating guests). By immersing visitors in a situation that potentially created malaise, my intent was to have participants question their own plural contradictions and bring cultural axioms related to old age to light. Furthermore, by giving them a chance to utter pain, anguish, and despair en presence de and eat from the gisant, I re-inscribed the dying into the commonplace.

The Saprotrophic Body thus promoted a “conjuncture of survival […] a state of renewal that combines with the present” (Déry 2006) by putting lingering, blooming, corporeal, and embodied things in relationship to the living.

Over the last two years, unfolding of these six creative case studies deepened my understanding of the implications of current negative body definitions in middle-aged women’s lives to self-identity and agency. All the case studies were instrumental in building my argument and trying to prompt the most effective answer to my research question. Unremitting readings and visual exploration informed each aesthetic and conceptual decision aimed at challenging the idea that ageing is intrinsically defined by disability, ontological decay, and death while looming new fields of interest await consideration. Future works will explore the possibility of letting go of the object to focus primarily on relational and participatory aspects. By putting relationships forward and creating socially engaged environments, I strive to accomplish more direct and

86 transformative encounters, ones that can impregnate the soul, even when the object d’art is out of sight and/or inexistent.

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Appendix 1: Creative Writings

Specimen 1: a brooch

The scent of violets diluted

The subtle stench of sweat

Lingering aroma of a faded youth on the fur collar

Accessorized, intentionally weaponized

By a brooch.

Mother.

Push and pull.

Neverendingly leaving me panting

Basting into the dampness of your winter coat

As sole refuge.

Abruptly weaned. Unuttered.

Specimen 2: dentures

Putting and removing. Endlessly.

Dentures.

Your tongue, the inner cheeks,

The warmness of the breath.

My rounded finger

Umbilical

I vividly remember the pinkness of the oral cavity

How it looked like candy

Surreal, somewhat sacred

Compared to your ailing body.

Mother. Vulnerable. Accessible.

Specimen 3: a teacup

Faltering dance.

The sweetness of waffle cookies

The anticipation of a treat

Eagerness.

The bitterness of the black tea

No sugar, no milk

Compromise.

The fragility of the porcelain in the hand of a child

Stress.

The familiar dread of your toothless smile

Repulsion.

Perturbations foreshadowing rituals.

Solace.

Specimen 4: an ear trumpet

Cascading laughter. Yours.

Loud. Crystalized. Deafening. Filling.

The smell of your waxy ears as I confide, a young child

My most secret fears

My earnest and most daring revelations.

The tickle of your nose hairs as you whisper back

Cascading laughter. Mine.

I am safe.

Specimen 5: a hairbrush

Frightened.

Blistering, your scalp

Punctuated by liver spots, alien.

100 brush strokes.

Luminous grey hair, vanity

A loose bun. What is left.

100 brush strokes.

I did not understand then that you were slowly leaving us.

I would not have been afraid.

I would have come closer.

Specimen 6: infant wear

Bittersweet longing in the shadow of the stillborn

To see my Mother, laugh again.

To be noticed

Meanwhile

Withstanding indifference.

Breathing in deeply as a substitute

Your layette, brother.

The one you wore while we said our final goodbyes

Opium against restlessness.

Elegy. clusters of traumas numbing, obliterating heaped on this original wound inflicted on me as young child then left accumulated, untended exposed to further divide now, in these later years at this very moment where the soul has healed and the heart is tranquil the flesh speaks of pain again, of old scars inscribed, carved out of matter

97 resentful and shouting ad interim repelling anything intended to be carefree and pleasurable protruding aggregates, feeding

I am now host to the unspeakable exhausted yet astonished by this material agency that now generates a possible lethal other

my back forever abraded from metal gurneys

I am shivering, and my womb is on fire as I am waiting endlessly to be scrutinized then severed, again cauterized and left to heal, it seems regardless

left to heal, it seems left molten, rather in search of a new bodily vessel one that will never bear child.

Appendix 2: Blog (screen captures)

https://eveprovostchartrand.wordpress.com/