The Lived Body
Material: Hairless body (in all but head), 100 meters of black satin double sided berisfold 7 mm width ribbon, No. 15 Swann-Morton sterile disposable scalpel (retractable), 60 kg of salt forming a salt plane 3000x3000, parcans (cold & red gels), LED boxes, 10 copper contact mics, 10 x 10000 mm guitar leads, black LX tape (1 roll), 140x35 steel butt plug, 10 channel audio mixer.Action: 25 minute failing walk across a salt plane in traverse, where a Being bleeds out and is de/constructed through the viscera of live noise, light, blood/salt, and darkness.The title of the work reflects a term coined by Maurice Merleau-Ponty whose theories have influenced the practice of the artist. The work is an active deconstruction of the Being of the artist, through the gaze of each individual witness. Creating a multiplicity of Self/s through Flesh and other, the action reconstructs Being beyond sight to immerse all in the sonic noise of the body. The sound was a live analogue mix by sonic artist Llewyn Máire.
Context: This was originally the final part in a triptych of phenomenological actions which ultimately transcended the series to stand alone in its own right and would latterly develop into its final form through a REDUX phase.
Made possible with support from Jerwood Charitable Foundation and University of Bristol.
2013
Buzzcut - Glasgow, UK
Production - Hannah Moore
Photography - Julia Bauer