Collect the spit in your mouth, push it to the front.Take your time. Let your mouth warm; it will begin to feel dense. Suck it back and forth through your teeth. Now it is cooling down, swallow it. Why does this substance so natural feel so foreign once you become aware of it? Sweat, spit, urine, mucus, all of these things that are products of bodily existence have come to be held as abject. There is a cultural shame regarding that which the body produces, remedied by a ubiquitous selection of pharmaceuticals to disguise or prevent such occurrences. Theorists on the body have contemplated the reasons behind such bodily shame, understanding the distaste as an unconscious aversion to the signifiers of the human condition. Ultimately that which the body produces may be seen as foreclosing the disintegration of the body, representing the timely guarantee of death. Abjection is about boundaries. So not only are the boundaries of inside/outside in terms of organic production, but also bodies that do not comply with socialised understandings of normality may be seen as abject. That which is not the idealised ‘body beautiful’, the groomed, trained body that conforms to gendered typologies has throughout history been subject to degradation, if not alienation. But it has also been revered, subcultures and communities claim the abject as a point of rebellion against mainstream culture, in fashion, in art and with and on the body. Millie Brown’s conceptual performance art is an example of contemporary artists harnessing the abject as an expressive tool. (Texto tomado de la entrevista realizada por Sang Bleu a Millie Brown: sangbleu/2014/07/) (Millie Brown) [youtube/watch?v=1dZ5BtZkIR4]
Posted on: Tue, 29 Jul 2014 16:12:17 +0000
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