QUEERING PERFORMATIVITY: THROUGH THE WORKS OF ANDY WARHOL AND PERFORMANCE ART by Claudia Martins Submitted to Central European University Department of Gender Studies In partial fulfillment for the degree of Master of Arts in Gender Studies CEU eTD Collection Budapest, Hungary 2008 I never fall apart, because I never fall together. Andy Warhol The Philosophy of Andy Warhol: From A to B and Back again CEU eTD Collection CONTENTS ILLUSTRATIONS..........................................................................................................iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.................................................................................................v ABSTRACT...................................................................................................................vi CHAPTER 1 - Introduction .............................................................................................7 CHAPTER 2 - Bringing the body into focus...................................................................13 CHAPTER 3 - XXI century: Era of (dis)embodiment......................................................17 Disembodiment in Virtual Spaces ..........................................................18 Embodiment Through Body Modification................................................19 CHAPTER 4 - Subculture: Resisting Ajustment ............................................................22 CHAPTER 5 - Sexually Deviant Bodies........................................................................24 CHAPTER 6 - Performing gender.................................................................................29 CHAPTER 7 - Performance Art: When the Body talks louder........................................35 Imponderabilia, 1977- Marina Abramoviü and Ulay ................................37 Rhythm 0, 1974 -- Marina Abramoviü.....................................................38 Action Pants: Genital Panic, 1969 – VALIE EXPORT.............................39 Conversions I, II and III - 1970 / 1971 - Vito Acconci ..............................40 CHAPTER 8 - Andy Warhol: Emboding Escape............................................................43 On the Surface ......................................................................................51 Silver, Mirror, Space, Stars, Amphetamine: Depth in Emptiness.............53 Collecting Signifiers...............................................................................58 Dislocating Meanings.............................................................................60 Feeling Pop, Seeing Pop.......................................................................62 “Who Wants the Truth?” ........................................................................64 Divine Icons...........................................................................................67 Difference Through Repetition ...............................................................69 CONCLUSION.............................................................................................................74 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................76 CEU eTD Collection iii ILLUSTRATIONS Figure Page 1. Jackson Pollack, Lavender Mist: Number 1, 1950.........................................................................15 2. Yves Klein, Anthropometries, 1960...............................................................................................15 3. Andy Warhol, Banana silkscreen, 1964 ........................................................................................15 4. Marina Abramoviü and Ulay, Imponderabilia, 1977 .......................................................................37 5. Marina Abramoviü, Rhythm 0, 1974..............................................................................................38 6. VALIE EXPORT, Action Pants: Genital Panic, 1969 .....................................................................39 7. Vito Acconci, Conversions II, 1970 / 1971.....................................................................................41 8. Andy Warhol, Marlon Brando, 1966..............................................................................................46 9. Andy Warhol, Double Elvis, 1963 .................................................................................................46 10. Andy Warhol, Thirteen Most Wanted Men, 1964 .........................................................................48 11. Andy Warhol, Thirteen Most Wanted Men, 1964 .........................................................................48 12. Andy Warhol, Sleep, 1963...........................................................................................................51 13. Andy Warhol, Sleep, 1963...........................................................................................................51 14. Andy Warhol, Kiss, 1963 ............................................................................................................58 15. Andy Warhol, Kiss, 1963 ............................................................................................................58 16. Andy Warhol, Brillo Box, 1964.....................................................................................................62 17. Andy Warhol, Campbell’s Soup Can, 1962 ..................................................................................62 18. Andy Warhol, Nancy, 1960 .........................................................................................................64 19. Andy Warhol, Liz, 1964 ...............................................................................................................69 20. Unknown author, Saint George, no date......................................................................................69 21. Andy Warhol, Mao, 1973.............................................................................................................69 22. Andy Warhol, Tunafish Disaster, 1963.........................................................................................71 23. Andy Warhol, Electric Chair, 1963..............................................................................................71 24. Andy Warhol, Marilyns, circa 1964 ..............................................................................................72 CEU eTD Collection iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thanks are owed to my supervisor Eszter Tímár for her kind and patient guidance through Foucault and Butler; to Márton, Éva and Pál Sebes for their love and good care of my son during the intense program of my studies, to my parents and sister back in Brazil for their enthusiastic support; to my colleagues Bernadett Báll and Mónika Jones for their help; to Anna Loutfi for her accurate and incisive thoughts; to Allaine Cerwonka and David Weberman for the initial spark that leaded me to gender studies, and finally a special thanks to Allaine Cerwonka for her books and advice for dealing with pregnancy, motherhood and an academic life. CEU eTD Collection v ABSTRACT This thesis discusses how gender identity is (des)constructed through corporeal performances and how it is possible to subvert binary gender norms. Departing from queer conceptions that destabilize the category of the subject as fixed, I rely on post-structuralist theories, in particular Judith Butler and Michael Foucault, both of whom have been influential in queer theory. In order to argue for possible ways to subvert normativity, I explore two case studies – Andy Warhol and performance artists, in which the corporeal performance of the artist's body - the deviant body - is located outside of the mainstream production of art. I combine one of Foucault's theories of power relations with Butler’s framework on performativity and performance to open up potential routes of empowering the sexually deviant body. CEU eTD Collection vi CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Departing from the attempt to comprehend the reemergence of the body as a platform for conveying meaning in contemporary art, justly, in an era of latent disembodiment in cyberspaces, militarization and terrorist actions1 - where the body has apparently lost its values; since 1990’s many artists have been using bodies as a medium to inscribe and, or renegotiate subjectivity. This is perhaps unsurprising given how technological disembodiment in cyberspace, militarization, and terrorism, for instance, have undermined traditional ideas about corporeality. These political shifts coincide with post-structural, postmodern, and feminist theoretical challenges to embodiment and subjectivity over the past fifty years. Consequently, the body can no longer be read as merely an (unproblematic) platform or surface for conveying meaning in contemporary art. The aim of this thesis is to show how performances of the body are connected to queer conceptions and practices of arts. I look particularly at corporeal performances as they are located on the margins - outside of the mainstream center of production - in order to explain how these performances subvert sexual gender norms. The choice of investigating bodily performances Art plays an important role in the process of understanding, criticizing and representing social relations, s Howard CEU eTD Collection Morphy explains: “Art is associated almost equally with the two senses of the world culture - culture as a way of life or body of ideas and knowledge, and culture as the 1 The disembodiment in military and terrorist actions is