Dissenting body and its creative recontextualisation in Lithuanian visual arts
Abstract
The body is an important starting point concept throughout deconstruction, reconstruction and recontextualization of the body’s concept. This change of focus in research that stems from the results to the process of contextualization means that the researcher should engage with texts or images, as they are reflected in the process of cultural development and exchange, through which decontextualization is exhibited. This article deals with the concept of new materialism and endeavors to explain, how discourses come to matter. It examines the issue of how new materialism tackles visual art in innovative ways – through the intersections of artistic practice, art-as-research, and philosophical analysis. Such definitions as Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s “a bodily being”, Julia Kristeva’s “the abjection of the self”, Arjun Appadurai’s “the aesthetics of decontextualization” and “singularized object”, Igor Kopytoff’s “the cultural biography of things”, and Nicholas Thomas’ “entangled objects”, constitute the methodological frameworks of our research. We will analyze such approaches as Hans Belting’s concept of body as a “living medium”, Giorgio Agamben’s view on body as an object of commodification and Jacques Derrida’s “trust in painting”. An attempt to understand body reconceptualization and deconstruction through the categories of new materialism is the most important aim of this article. Karen Barad’s concept of intra-action (that implies a clear-cut subject-object distinction) is crucial to our research, which underlines that bodies have no inherent boundaries and properties and that the analyzed representations are “material-discursive phenomena”. The artworks under consideration will be confronted with a diagnosis that, according to Barad, all bodies come to matter thanks the intra-activity and its performativity. The case studies of Svajonė Stanikienė and Paulius Stanikas, Evaldas Jansas and Eglė Rakauskaitė works show how the image of the body is developed through the processes of their deconstruction and decontextualization.
Article in English.
Prieštaringas kūnas ir jo kūrybinis rekontekstualizavimas Lietuvos vizualiuosiuose menuose
Santrauka
Kūnas, kūniškumo koncepcija dažnai yra atskaitos taškas naujojo materializmo filosofinėms kryptims, ieškančioms naujų kūno ir kūniškumo apibrėžčių, taip pat pasitelkiančioms ir naujas kūrybiškumo koncepcijas. Tai reiškia, kad tyrėjas turi naujai pažvelgti ne tik į pačią kūno sampratą, tačiau ir permąstyti kūniškumą apibrėžiančius tekstus bei vaizdus (taip pat vaizdinius, įvaizdžius) neperžengiant kultūrinės interakcijos ribų. Perkurti kūniškumą kartu reiškia perkurti kultūrinius tekstus ir tekstūras apskritai.Straipsnyje daugiausia remiamasi naujojo materializmo koncepcijomis, kurių visuma formuoja kūniškumo sampratą. Tekste susitelkiama į tas naujojo materializmo koncepcijas, kuriomis bandoma naujai pažvelgti į vizualiuosius menus, pasitelkiant ir derinant įvairias jų praktikas, meninius tyrimus, taip pat filosofinę analizę.Straipsnio metodologines gaires galima apibrėžti Maurice’o Merleau-Ponty „kūniškos būties“, Julios Kristevos „svetimumo savastyje“ arba „savasties atmetimo“, Arjuno Appadurai „dekontekstualizavimo estetikos“ ir „unikalaus objekto“, Igorio Kopytoffo „daiktų kultūrinės biografijos“, Nicholaso Thomaso „susaistančių objektų“ daikto, kūno ir kūniškumo koncepcijomis. Straipsnyje iš dalies aptariamos ir Hanso Beltingo kūno kaip „gyvos medijos“, Giorgio Agambeno kūno kaip objekto idėjos, taip pat glaustai aptariama Jacques’o Derrida „tiesos tapyboje“ koncepcija.Galiausiai naujai kūniškumo sampratai svarbi ir Karen Barad suformuluota intra-akcijos (ne tiek objektų, kūnų, kiek bendros energijos sąveikos) samprata, kurią filosofė pasiūlė vietoj interakcijos sąvokos. Pasak filosofės, kūnai nėra statiški, užbaigti objektai su savo ribomis. Kūnas aktualizuojasi per pasaulio kartotines in-tra-akcijas ‒ dėl savojo performatyvumo. Remiantis menininkų Svajonės Stanikienės ir Pauliaus Staniko, Evaldo Janso ir Eglės Rakauskaitės kūrybos pavyzdžiais, bandoma parodyti, kaip kuriamos naujos kūniškumo apibrėžtys, įvaizdžiai, įvairiais būdais išardant ir perkuriant kūno sampratą.
Reikšminiai žodžiai: atmetimas, kūno perkūrimas, prekės, kūrybiškumas, emocinis teroras, materija, naujasis materializmas, posthumanizmas, seksualumas, smurtas.
Keyword : abjection, body reconceptualization, commodities, creativity, emotional terror, matter, new materialism, post-humanism, sexuality, violence
How to Cite
Nikiforova, B., & Šapoka, K. (2019). Dissenting body and its creative recontextualisation in Lithuanian visual arts. Creativity Studies, 12(2), 361-375. https://doi.org/10.3846/cs.2019.11178
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
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Appadurai, A. (1986). Introduction: commodities and the politics of value. In A. Appadurai (Ed.), The social life of things: commodities in cultural perspective (pp. 3–63). Cambridge: Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511819582.003
Apter, E., Atkins, E., Avanessian, A., Brown, B., Bruno, G., Bryan-Wilson, J., Burnett, D. G., Chen, M. Y., Cole, A., Cox, Ch., Malik, S., Demos, T. J., Dolven, J., Doris, D. T., Draxler, H., Falguières, P., Galison, P., Galloway, A. R., Haidu, R., Harman, G., Henrot, C., Holmes, B., Ingold, T., Jones, C. A., Kitnick, A., Lewitt, S., Molesworth, H., Nemerov, A., Newman, M., Papapetros, S., Pfeffer, S., Quack, G., Ray, Ch., Ritchie, M., Rottmann, A., Siegel, A., Stakemeier, K., Vierkant, A., Wark, M., Weizman, E., Wood, Ch. S., & Ga, Zh. (2016). A questionnaire on materialisms. October, 155, 3–110. https://doi.org/10.1162/OCTO_a_00243
Attridge, D. (1992). This strange institution called literature: an interview with Jacques Derrida. In J. Derrida, Acts of literature (pp. 33–75). D. Attridge (Ed.). New York, London: Routledge.
Barad, K. (2007). Meeting the universe halfway: quantum physics and the entanglement of matter and meaning. Durham and London: Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822388128
Barad, K. (2003). Posthumanist performativity: toward an understanding of how matter comes to matter. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 28(3), 801–831. https://doi.org/10.1086/345321
Belting, H. (2014). An anthropology of images: picture, medium, body. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press.
Braidotti, R. (2005). A critical cartography of feminist post-postmodernism. Australian Feminist Studies, 20(47), 169–180. https://doi.org/10.1080/08164640500090319
Braidotti, R. (2012). Interview with Rosi Braidotti. In R. Dolphijn & van der I. Tuin. New materialism: interviews and cartographies (pp. 19–37). Series: New Metaphysics. G. Harman & B. Latour (Series Eds.). Ann Arbor: Open Humanities Press.
Braidotti, R. (2016). Posthuman affirmative politics. In S. E.Wilmer & A. Žukauskaitė (Eds.), Resisting biopolitics: philosophical, political, and performative strategies (pp. 30–56). Series: Routledge Studies in Contemporary Philosophy. New York: Routledge.
Bullington, J. (2013). The expression of the psychosomatic body from a phenomenological perspective. Series: Springer Briefs in Philosophy. New York, London: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6498-9
Derrida, J. (2004). Prégnances: Lavis de Colette Deblé. Peintures. Mont-de-Marsan: L’Atelier des Brisants.
Derrida, J. (1987). The truth in painting. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.
Derrida, J. (1998). To unsense the subjectile. In J. Derrida & P. Thévenin, The Secret Art of Antonin Artaud (pp. 59–157). Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Douglas, M. (1970). Natural symbols: explorations in cosmology. London: Barrie & Rockliff.
Douglas, M. (2003). Risk and blame: essays on cultural theory. London and New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203430866
Foucault, M. (1978). The history of sexuality. Vol. 1: The History of Sexuality. New York: Random House, Inc.
Graw, I. (2009). High price: art between the market and celebrity culture. Berlin: Sternberg Press.
Grosz, E. (2004). The Nick of time: politics, evolution, and the untimely. Durham, London: Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822386032
Halberstam, J., & Livingston, I. (Eds.). (1995). Posthuman bodies. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.
Intercollegiate Studies Institute. (2014). Body, mind, and deconstruction. Retrieved from https://isi.org/intercollegiate-review/body-mind-and-deconstruction/
Johnson, M. (2007). The meaning of the body: aesthetics of human understanding. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226026992.001.0001
Jones, A. (Ed.). (2003). The feminism and visual culture reader. London and New York: Routledge.
Jones, A., Steinhäuser, S., & Macdonald, N. (2018). Performative afterlife: an Interview with Amelia Jones. Parallax, 24(1), 11–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/13534645.2017.1415265
Kopytoff, I. (1986). The cultural biography of things: commoditization as process. In A. Appadurai (Ed), The social life of things: commodities in cultural perspective (pp. 64–91). Cambridge: Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511819582.004
Kristeva, J. (1982). Powers of horror: an essay on abjection. Series: European Perspectives. New York: Columbia University Press.
Lee Bartky, S. (1997). Foucault, femininity and the modernization of patriarchal power. In K. Conboy, N. Medina, & S. Stanbury (Eds.), Writing on the body: female embodiment and feminist theory (pp. 129–154). New York: Columbia University Press.
Lee Bartky, S. (2002). Sympathy and solidarity, and other essays. Series: Feminist Constructions. H. Lindemann Nelson & S. Ruddick (Series Eds.). Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Lepecki, A. (2006). Exhausting dance: performance and the politics of movement. New York and London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203012871
Massumi, B. (2014). What animals teach us about politics. Durham, London: Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822376057
Merleau-Ponty, M. (2005). Phenomenology of perception. London and New York: Routledge.
Rossetto, T. (2015). An anthropology of images by Hans Belting. Society and space. Retrieved from http://societyandspace.org/2015/09/02/an-anthropology-of-images-picture-medium-body-by-hans-bel-ting-reviewed-by-tania-rossetto/
Thomas, N. (1991). Entangled objects: exchange, material culture, and colonialism in the pacific. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Young, I. M. (2005). On female body experience: “Throwing Like a Girl”, and other essays. Series: Studies in Feminist Philosophy. Ch. Calhoun (Series Ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/0195161920.001.0001