Body Boundaries at the Dawn of a New Millenium

Body Boundaries at the Dawn of a New Millenium

Ren e g o ti a t in g Body Boundaries at the Dawn of a New Millenium Ruth H, Kerkham Renegotiating Body Boundaries at the Dawn of a New Millenium Ruth H. Kerkham Thesis submitted for Masters of Philosophical Foundations (Interdisciplinary Studies in Art Theory, Feminist Philosophy and Cultural Studies) Institute for Christian Studies August 1998 To Anthony Edwards for the dreams we share, and in memory o f Keith Edwards for fostering those dreams. Tab!© of Contents Preface Bubble Fairies............................................................................................................................j. Introduction Bodies o f the New Millenium May Not Stand Up................................................................ 1 “Will the Real Body Please Stand Up?”................................................................................................................. 1 Vampires: Vector’s of Category Transformations................................................................................................3 Skin and Blood: Agitator’s of Old Frontiers......................................................................................................... 4 Renegotiation: Hosting a Para Site..........................................................................................................................8 Chapter 1 Performative Bodies: The Parodic Parody o f Luce Irigaray and Cindy Sherman.............................................. 11 Introduction..............................................................................................................................................................11 Irigaray’s Methodological Use of Mimetic Bodies............................................................................................ 13 -Seduction at Play.................................................................................................................... 13 -Mimicry’s Outcry................................................................................................................... 14 -Vulvamorphic Mimesis.......................................................................................................... 16 -Resilience that Matters...........................................................................................................18 -Reappropriating Chora...........................................................................................................20 Cindy Sherman’s Methodological Use of Performative Bodies........................................................................ 23 -The Woman I Know: Cindy Sherman’s Film Stills............................................................ 24 -The Master Copy: Cindy Sherman’s History Portraits.......................................................26 -The Prosthetic Truth: Cindy Sherman’s Sex Pictures........................................................29 Conclusion................................................................................................................................................................31 Chapter 2 Pervious Bodies: Skin Slippage in Kiki Smith Ss Sculpture............................................................................. 35 Introduction..............................................................................................................................................................35 Body Abject/Abject Bodies................................................................................................................................... 37 The Abject: Disturbing Order..........................................................................................37 Kiki Smith’s Disruption of Order...................................................................................38 Fluidity as Resistance: Demythologizing Semen................................................................................................. 42 Julia Kristeva: Polluting and Non-Polluting Fluids......................................................42 Luce Irigaray’s Parody of Female Fluidity....................................................................43 Aristotle’s Mythology of Semen.....................................................................................45 Elizabeth Grosz: Pulling Back the Sheath.....................................................................46 Skin Slippage in Kiki Smith’s Sculpture..............................................................................................................49 Smith’s Gender Slippage of Fluid Bodies.....................................................................49 Smith’s Slippage of Polluting and Non-Polluting Fluids............................................. 53 Smith’s Slippage of Inside and Outside......................................................................... 57 Conclusion................................................................................................................................................................60 Chapter 3 Pedigree Bodies: Wearing the Skin of the Other................................................................................................................. 64 Introduction..............................................................................................................................................................64 Donna Haraway: Race within a Constructed Biological Discourse..................................................................65 Bloodline: Racial Construction and the One-Drop Rule.................................................................................... 67 Bad Blood: Western Feminism in Africa............................................................................................................ 70 Artistic Representation of the Black Female Body............................................................................................ 75 The Black Body in Contemporary South African Art........................................................................................78 Exoticizing the Other....................................................................................................... 78 The Deconstruction of Race: Wearing the Skin of the Other..................................... 81 Gendered Criticism..........................................................................................................92 Chapter 4 Posth uman_upload@extend. com: The Body as Clickable Icon......................................................................................................................104 Introduction........................................................................................................................................................... 104 Cyborgs Enter One By One................................................................................................................................. 107 Cyberfeminism/Cyborgian Feminism - Is there a Difference?............................................................ ..........109 Virtuality: A Space of Slippage for Multiple Selves........................................................................................ 115 The Body as Clickable Icon: Man or Mouse?...................................................................................................118 Stelarc: An Utopian View of Technology..........................................................................................................120 The Body as Host for Techno-Matter.......................................................................... 120 Art as Parasite.................................................................................................................123 A Nervous System of Global Hookups........................................................................124 Orlan: Parodying the Utopian View of Technology......................................................................................... 126 A Cyber-Muse in Stitches..............................................................................................126 Stitching: Man’s Work on the Cutting Edge............................................................... 129 A Stitch in the Side: Dionysian Parody of Pain..........................................................134 Conclusion...................................................................................................................... 135 Conclusion Re-membering Bodies..................................................................................................................................142 Bibliograph y„............................................................................................................147 Appendix A Unzipped............................................................................................................................................................. 154 List of illustrations Figure 1. Cindy Sherman, Untitled #13. 1978 Black and White Photograph Figure 2 Cindy Sherman, Untitled #23. 1978 Black and White Photograph Figure 3 Cindy Sherman, Untitled #47. 1979 Black and White Photograph Figure 4 Cindy Sherman, Untitled #3. 1979 Black and White Photograph Figure 5 Cindy Sherman, Untitled #30. 1979 Black and White Photograph Figure 6 Cindy Sherman, Untitled #2. 1977 Black and White Photograph Figure 7 Cindy Sherman, Untitled #9. 1978 Black and White Photograph Figure 8 Cindy Sherman, Untitled #216. 1989 Colour Photograph Figure 9 Cindy Sherman, Untitled

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