A Sheffield Hallam University Thesis
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How do I look? Viewing, embodiment, performance, showgirls, and art practice. CARR, Alison J. Available from the Sheffield Hallam University Research Archive (SHURA) at: http://shura.shu.ac.uk/19426/ A Sheffield Hallam University thesis This thesis is protected by copyright which belongs to the author. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author. When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given. Please visit http://shura.shu.ac.uk/19426/ and http://shura.shu.ac.uk/information.html for further details about copyright and re-use permissions. How Do I Look? Viewing, Embodiment, Performance, Showgirls, & Art Practice Alison Jane Carr A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Sheffield Hallam University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy ProQuest Number: 10694307 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 10694307 Published by ProQuest LLC(2017). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 Declaration I, Alison J Carr, declare that the enclosed submission for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, and consisting of a written thesis and a DVD booklet, meets the regulations stated in the handbook for the mode of submission selected and approved by the Research Degrees Sub-Committee of Sheffield Hallam University. I declare that this submission is my own work, and has not been submitted for any other academic award. The use of all materials from sources other than my own work has been properly and fully acknowledged. A bstract My research explores the possibility of a revitalised language around viewing, pleasure and embodiment that can result from a consideration of the figure of the showgirl: her live performance, her representation in art, film, and images, as well as how showgirls articulate their own experiences and my own pleasures in viewing showgirls can yield in terms of a revitalised language around viewing, pleasure, and embodiment. I look at the showgirl, and the debates she has triggered, in order to unpack how the relationship between embodiment, spectatorship, and feminism has been seen in a range of literatures. In the process, I suggest what is closed down in these debates, and through my art work I point to the possibilities she offers, I suggest that literature on the gaze, powerfully shaped by the significant works of John Berger and Laura Mulvey, has reduced the complexity in how the showgirl is seen. While the discursive contexts in which Mulvey and Berger wrote allowed for reflexive accounts of the gaze, their ideas have circulated so widely and forcefully as to become monolithic; taken too literally without putting into context. I felt an important aim was putting Laura Mulvey’s essay, ‘Visual Pleasure in Narrative Cinema’ into context in ways that would destabilise its status as a monolith. I do this by looking at how technologies have shaped the critical and theoretical approaches to viewing the showgirl. I avoid making the assumption that our culture with its prevalence of bodily display creates feelings of emancipation and empowerment for women. Rather, I am alarmed at the inadequacy of the critical tools applied to showgirls and showgirl culture particularly within popular feminism— tools that seem only to uncover a limited set of conclusions. These conclusions are that women are led blindly into practices of bodily display and femininity, that exposure of their body only signals a desire to please men and get ahead in financial terms, that women only feel jealously and competitive when they see other women represented or performing in beautiful or erotic ways. All of this presumes that showgirls and their audiences have no capacity to reflect, think critically, support one another, and move between performance contexts. Therefore, what is at stake within this research is the new feminist tools that are urgently needed for considering images and performances of bodily display; without such tools, we allow the proliferation and normalisation of abhorrent misogynist and reductive, polarised ways of discussing the body to dominate discussions of display and pleasure. I use of a range of methods including producing art works, close-reading of art works and artefacts, watching showgirl shows, conducting oral history interviews with showgirls, drawing on queer theory, considering performative styles of writing, and using films to provide structural devices. I end my thesis by positioning how art work can bring complexity and nuance to the discussion. Across the research, I create my own showgirl performance: in text and in art works. Acknowledgements I would like to thank first and foremost my supervisors, Jaspar Joseph-Lester and Feona Attwood, without whom this would not be nearly as ambitious. It has been almost always a joy to work with you both! Thank you for giving me the freedom to pursue my ideas and hunches, and for insightful debriefing. Thanks also to Sheffield Hallam University for funding this research through my Teaching Researcher post. It has been incredibly rewarding teaching within the Fine Art department. Thanks too to my colleagues for showing me the ropes. All of the interviewees who shared their reflections with me shaped this research and kept me going in ways they will not even have been aware of. Thank you, Jazmin Barret, Maria Slowinska, Kitty Enters, Chris Kraus, Amanda Marquardt, Ashley Fuller, Jacqui Ford, Beatrix Von Bourbon, Felicity Widdrington, and Sam Wood. I have had the pleasure of being shown a range of photographs and books from 'out the back’, notably at the National Media Museum, the British Library, the National Fairground Archive, and the British Film Institute. I also had the pleasure of being a fellow at the Terra Summer Residency in Giverny 2010. Thank you to my fellow Fellows for encouragement and support. And for helping me stay the PhD course: Ellery Foutch, Maria Slowinksa and Helene Valance— the relevant research skills, I learned from you. iv 1Video Letters gave me the opportunity to develop a new way of working, without even intending to. Thank you, Kerstin Honeit—we had a great conversation. Thanks too, to Olivia Reynolds and LoBe Gallery for the opportunity and Tim Machin and SIA Gallery for subsequently showing the work. Lesley Guy added an amazing textual response to the show—and has been a wonderful friend and colleague throughout my PhD. Much of this research was inspired by the conversations and critiques I had during my MFA at CalArts. I am, and will always be, a CalArtian. Thank you to all o f my cohort for all of our conversations. Even the ones that felt like World War Three. But in particular, Alexis Hudgins, Brica Wilcox, Lakshmi Luthra, April Totten, Ali Prosch, Megan Cotts and Meghann McCrory. Much of what I have written here are the thoughts I have had on the stairwell leaving CalArts— I am sorry I took so long formulating them! What I have written will be recognisable to Natalie Bookchin, Ellen Birrell, David Bunn, Kaucyila Brooke— thanks for all the useful leads and encouragement. Leslie Dick, occasionally glimpsing the potential you see in me has kept me going. Thank you, for all the help, and for being my friend. Thank you to the speakers who took part in How Do We Look? Jaspar Joseph- Lester, Norman Klein, Meghann McCrory, Elleni Sclaventis, Isabella Streffen, and Brica Wilcox— you made the event a success! A range of showgirls on various stages inspired this project. And quite a few dance teachers too. In particular, at Constance Grant Dance Centre: Miss Judy, Tracey Southern, Jeni Ferguson, and Carolann Copley-Tucci, as well as Emily Talks at Hype, Lara Gothique at Velvet Burlesque, and Jo King at the London School of Burlesque. And for being in The A.rtist with me, thanks to the wonderful dancers, Lizzie Dodd and Hayley Watts. V If you are going to take risks in your art and research, you want a colleague like Dale Holmes insinuating you have not gone far enough or taken enough of a risk. Thank you Dale. What happened in Unit 12, stays in Unit 12. For checking the interview transcripts over for accuracy, thanks Samantha Wood. For proof-reading, cheerleading, hand-holding, and lots of tea (and sympathy!), Katherine Angel. There are many more I should mention, but I have tried to keep this brief. So, thank you to everyone else: Twitter friends, research friends, students and generous colleagues. For looking after me (both body and soul) throughout, thanks are not enough to Dennis Carr and Greg Wells. But thank you, a lot. Most importantly, this is for Sue Carr. vi C ontents Page Declaration i Abstract ii Acknowledgements iv List of Photographs ix Overture 1 Chapter One, How Do They Look? 16 Observe 20 Gaze 24 Double-Take 29 Grab 36 Chapter Two, How Do / Look?: How Do I Feel as I Watch Showgirls? 41 Part One: Theatres 53 Moulin Rouge 54 The Lido 59 La Nouvelle Eve 64 Paradis Latin 68 Crazy Horse Saloon 73 Jubilee