BEARING WITNESS: ON PAIN IN PERFORMANCE ART by Jareh Das Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of PhD Department of Geography Royal Holloway, University of London, 2016 1 Declaration of Authorship I, Jareh Das hereby declare that this thesis and the work presented in it is entirely my own. Where I have consulted the work of others, this is always clearly stated. Signed: Date: 19th December 2016 2 Acknowledgments This thesis is the result of the generosity of the artists, Ron Athey, Martin O’Brien and Ulay. They, who all continue to create genre-bending and deeply moving works that allow for multiple readings of the body as it continues to evolve alongside all sort of cultural, technological, social, and political shifts. I have numerous friends, family (Das and Krys), colleagues and acQuaintances to thank all at different stages but here, I will mention a few who have been instrumental to this process – Deniz Unal, Joanna Reynolds, Adia Sowho, Emmanuel Balogun, Cleo Joseph, Amanprit Sandhu, Irina Stark, Denise Kwan, Kirsty Buchanan, Samantha Astic, Samantha Sweeting, Ali McGlip, Nina Valjarevic, Sara Naim, Grace Morgan Pardo, Ana Francisca Amaral, Anna Maria Pinaka, Kim Cowans, Rebecca Bligh, Sebastian Kozak and Sabrina Grimwood. They helped me through the most difficult parts of this thesis, and some were instrumental in the editing of this text. (Jo, Emmanuel, Anna Maria, Grace, Deniz, Kirsty and Ali) and even encouraged my initial application (Sabrina and Rebecca). I must add that without the supervision and support of Professor Harriet Hawkins, this thesis would not have been completed. Thank you. I also thank Nicola Triscott, Claudia Lastra, and all past and present staff at The Arts Catalyst who supported my research, and in choosing me as their PhD Research student took a chance with a ‘wild card’. My examiners Deborah Dixon and Mary Richards who probed, Questioned and pushed for a more expanded and refined thesis. To Ed Luker, proof-reader and copy editor extraordinaire, thank you. My thesis is dedicated to my late sister, Dr. Nene Gbegbaje-Das, who lived with Sickle Cell Disease until her untimely death seven years ago. Nene overcame the challenges imposed by living with chronic pain and gave me a perspective of openness and compassion for bodies that endure and transcend the limits of illness. No Pain. No Gain. 3 Abstract This thesis examines pain in performance art and, as the subtitle suggests, it addresses notions of bearing witness by examining art practices that cross the boundaries of performance art, social practice, illness, activism, and other forms of confrontation with the male body. Bearing witness takes up ideas of witnessing as ‘a collective sensorial practice of listening to bodies’1, as well as concerns with ‘seeing how seeing takes place,’2 which allows possibilities of moving beyond an audience’s role as witnesses and drawing attention to the very conditions of witnessing itself. To explore these ideas, this thesis analyses the work of three artists - Ron Athey, Martin O’Brien and Ulay - exploring ideas of how witnessing pain operates through three different sites: audiencing, curating and documenting. This analysis demonstrates the creative and political potential that a range of sites and ways of witnessing pain offers audiences, artists, and curators. It explores how pain serves as a critical tool, whether functioning metaphorically, conceptually, or literally, to understand how the body of the artist tells of their most intimate experiences, thus reQuiring that we once again revisit the place and potency of the body in performance art and its intersections within a range of identities. By considering the work of these three cross- generational artists, and with the varying pain actions they deploy, this thesis extends and develops interdisciplinary work on performing bodies, pain, and witnessing. 1 Donna McCormack, Queer Postcolonial Narratives and the Ethics of Witnessing (London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2014), p. 20. 2 Jane Blocker, Seeing Witness: Visuality and the Ethics of Witnessing (University of Minnesota Press, 2008) p. xx. 4 Table of Contents Abstract........................................................................................................................ 4 Table of Contents......................................................................................................... 5 List of images............................................................................................................... 6 Chapter 1 - Introduction: Witnessing, Curating and Documenting Pain in Performance Art.......................................................................................................... 8 Chapter 2 - Literature and Performance Art Review.............................................. 56 Chapter 3 - Curating Pain: The Sick Body in Martin O'Brien’s Taste of Flesh/Bite Me I’m Yours ............................................................................................................... 111 Chapter 4 - Audiencing Pain “live”: The Gospel according to Ron........................ 159 Chapter 5 - Crisis: Ulay’s Auto-Polaroids – and the Ethics of Reflecting and Witnessing Pain……………..……………………………………………………......................... 205 Chapter 6 - Conclusion............................................................................................... 240 Bibliography................................................................................................................ 252 5 List of Images Fig.1 – Dissection of the lower leg and foot from ‘Surgical Anatomy’ by Joseph Maclise, 1857, ©Project Gutenberg. Fig.2 – Marina Abramović, Lips of Thomas, 1975, A two-hour durational performance at Galerie Krinzinger, Innsbruck Courtesy of the artist. Fig.3 – Chris Burden, Shoot, 1971, F Space, Santa Ana, California, Courtesy Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), New York. Fig. 4 – Rocío Boliver, Between Menopause and Old Age, 2012, performed as part of the Brooklyn Inter-national Performance Art Festival, 2012, photo by Laura Blüer, image courtesy of Grace Exhibition Space, New York. Fig.5 – Martin O’Brien, Breathe for me, 2012-2013, image courtesy of the artist. Fig.6 – Carlos Martiel, Vanishing Point, 2013, Nitsch Museum, Naples, Italy, ©Amedeo Benestante. Fig.7 – Martin O'Brien, Taste of Flesh/Bite Me I'm Yours, 2015, commissioned by The Arts Catalyst, London, ©Martin O’Brien/The Arts Catalyst, London. Fig.8 – Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist performance, 1995, Berlin, Sheree Rose and Bob Flanagan papers and photographs, Coll2016-012, ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives, USC Libraries, University of Southern California. Fig.9 – Installation view, Taste of Flesh/Bite Me I'm Yours, 2015, commissioned by The Arts Catalyst, London, ©Martin O’Brien and The Arts Catalyst. Fig.10 – Post-performance debris in the space, Taste of Flesh/Bite Me I'm Yours, 2015, commissioned by The Arts Catalyst, London, ©Martin O’Brien/The Arts Catalyst/London. Fig.11 – Martin O’Brien Blowing mucus bubbles at his audience during Taste of Flesh Bite Me I’m Yours, 2015, ©Martin O’Brien/The Arts Catalyst/London. Fig.12 Martin biting an audience member, Taste of Flesh/Bite Me I'm Yours, 2015, commissioned by The Arts Catalyst, London, ©Martin O’Brien/The Arts Catalyst/London. Fig.13 – Martin’s mask-hood (close-up), Martin O’Brien performing Taste of Flesh/Bite Me I’m Yours, 2015, commissioned by The Arts Catalyst, London, ©Martin O'Brien and The Arts Catalyst. Fig.14 – Ron Athey with Divinity P. Fudge aka Darryl Carlton performing 4 Scenes In A Harsh Life, 1994, image courtesy the artist. Fig.15 – Ron Athey, Incorruptible Flesh: Dissociative Sparkle, 2006, Glasgow, ©Manuel Vason. Fig.16 – Ron Athey, Incorruptible Flesh: Messianic Remains (detail), Thessaloniki, 2013, 6 ©Manuel Vason. Fig.17 – Found web image of a Judas Cradle, date unknown, alongside Ron Athey performing Judas Cradle, 2004, an operatic duo drama with Juliana Snapper in the chapel of Castle Codelli, Ljubljana, Slovenia (Visions of Excess, produced by Aksioma and Kapelica), ©Manuel Vason. Fig.18 – Athey and Snapper opening sequence, Judas Cradle, 291 Gallery, London, image still from video, 65:00”, courtesy of Live Art Development Agency (LADA), all images ©Jareh Das. Fig.19 – Installation view, Judas Cradle, 2005, 291 Gallery, London, image still from video, 65:00”, courtesy of Live Art Development Agency (LADA), all images ©Jareh Das Fig.20 – Image still of Juliana Snapper and Ron Athey performing Judas Cradle, 2005, video, 65:00”, courtesy of Live Art Development Agency (LADA), all images ©Jareh Das Fig.21 – Image still of Juliana Snapper and Ron Athey performing Judas Cradle, 2005, video, 65:00”, courtesy of Live Art Development Agency (LADA), all images ©Jareh Das Fig.22 – Ulay, GEN. E.T RATION ULTMA RATIO, 1972, Polaroid type 107, 10.8 x 8.5cm, courtesy of the artist and MOT International, London and Brussels. Fig. 23 – Ulay, S’he, 1972, Auto-Polaroids from the series Renias sense, courtesy of the artist and MOT International, London and Brussels. Fig.24 – GEN. E.T. RATION ULTIMA RATIO, 1972, detail of skiing graft and removed tattoo, courtesy of the artist and MOT International, London and Brussels. Fig.25 – Ulay, Ben Agere (In Her Shoes), Auto-polaroid ,1974, courtesy of the artist and MOT International, London and Brussels. Fig.26 – Ulay, Diamond Plane, Auto-polaroid, 1974, courtesy of the artist and MOT International, London and Brussels. 7 Chapter 1 Witnessing, Curating and Documenting Pain in Performance