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Viscous matter: emotion, agency, and resistance in contemporary performance

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posted on 2023-06-10, 05:38 authored by Wenjie Li

This study explores material-driven approaches in contemporary performance, foregrounding affect, materiality, matter, and human–thing entanglement. I investigate how materials considered ‘sticky’ and viscous can be utilised to resist binary thinking in an era of political polarisation. Combined with archival research, attendance at live events, close performance analysis, and conversations with the featured women and non-binary artists, I highlight alternative angles to interpret their work in relation to the expanded notion of the body. Each chapter investigates artistic practice with specific substances, ranging from liquid honey, molten chocolate, wet clay, and to menstrual blood and chicken eggs.

Chapter 1 examines the term ‘viscosity’ through diffractive reading, establishing this research as crossing disciplinary boundaries and creating a transdisciplinary study domain. The three following chapters focus on the above five materials. Chapter 2 engages with liquid honey and molten chocolate, with a focus on Karen Finley's performance Shut Up and Love Me, and Helen Chadwick’s photo series Wreaths to Pleasure and the subsequent installation Cacao. Chapter 3 investigates the theoretical foundation of material agency and the metamorphic capacity of clay in Florence Peake’s expansive body of work RITE: on this pliant body we slip our WOW!. Chapter 4 considers the non-binary relationship between symbols and materials in menstrual performance by the UK artist/activist group ‘Menstronauts’, co-founded by Marisa Carnesky and Lara Clifton, and Kira O’Reilly’s performance series with chicken eggs, Untitled. The Conclusion summarises the findings to performance research practice and discourse. The importance of viscosity, in-betweenness, and ambiguity are readdressed to envision the non-Cartesian-Newtonian paradigm shift. This thesis aims to demonstrate that artistic practice using viscous materials can help find new methods and techniques to reimagine the relationship between humans and nonhumans in its broadest context.

History

File Version

  • Published version

Pages

216

Department affiliated with

  • English Theses

Qualification level

  • doctoral

Qualification name

  • phd

Language

  • eng

Institution

University of Sussex

Full text available

  • Yes

Supervisor

Augusto Corrieri and Jason Price

Legacy Posted Date

2022-12-21

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