This idea was initiated through the consideration of my own practice in which I have been experimenting with the forms of meat and fabric, but my proposal stems more from the unexplored areas related to this practice. Whereas I am fascinated by the idea of sensuality in regards to the human senses of touch and sight, on reading Kristeva’s account of the abject I thought attempting to create an environment that is all encompassing, stimulating each sense of touch, sight, smell, hearing (and more dubiously achievable) taste would be a challenging concept. It must be something that is not definable and yet absolutely horrifies, that takes you to ‘the place where meaning collapses.’
This does not mean that I intend to create a space that is so overwhelmingly disgusting that you can no longer function; that is not the point of the abject, or moreover the ideas within the abject that are the focus. For me, within abjection there is a discussion about the body, human instinct and as a woman and so part of a minority in the art world, issues of femininity, gender and sexuality which I feel I cannot ignore.
My proposal is to create an abject environment. The space: a long and thin white corridor, however not necessarily with walls in pristine condition as in a traditional white gallery. For example with peeling paint or a sense of being in use.
This was not my original thought, but I think it adds an interesting element; mainly the quite obvious metaphor for trying to break down and peel away the stifling rules of artistic tradition. However Kristeva points out that dirtiness does not cause the abject, instead it is ‘what disturbs identity, system, order. What does not respect borders, positions, rules.’ In a way this is where my original ideas for the proposal arose. I began to think about spaces in society that could be considered abject. Whether too obviously or not my thoughts turned to abattoirs or slaughterhouses. As Paul McCartney famously said,
"If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be vegetarian."
There is something about these buildings filled with carcasses that the non-butcher (for want of a better word) can’t abide the idea of, and so refuses to. I didn’t really think about the absolute horror that you can feel on the sight of animal after animal being strung up until watching footage from a slaughterhouse. This was useful because it helped me experience an abject feeling of disgust at what I was watching, but also the inability to turn my eyes away from the images. It also gave me a different angle to convey within my proposal; a respect for the history of the place and the references of meat that I intend to use. This again taps into the idea of the minority in the art world, and our society in general. Possibly the abject appeals to such groups because if ‘dirt stands in as truth’ through abjection we are allowed to display all our dirty laundry to the world, shove it in their faces, and say, ‘this is the truth about my life’. So it is not just dirt, it is a necessary transgression of boundaries to force our viewers to see something beyond the politically correct and what is ‘pleasant’. I suppose Tracey Emin’s bed could be interpreted as a quite literal example of this. As well as an exploration of the abject, this project would be necessarily personal, as I believe it is hard to avoid this in art generally, and as I would intend to create the work myself rather than commissioning others. I also realise that my relation of animals to the abject could be seen as misguided. However if the viewer disagrees with me that the violation of the body of an animal is as equally horrifying as that of a human, then it at least serves as a sufficient metaphor.
So we have established the space; now for the art. I intend to have a row of hooks (from a butchers or abattoir) stretching from the middle of the corridor, or as I shall refer to it from now on, the walkway, leaving a space between the entrance and the ‘abjects’. From the hooks will hang bloodstained casts, taken from my own body wrapped in materials such as lace nightgowns and sheets etc. Most likely I would use plaster as I would like to reference the long corridors in museums lined with white busts of notable people. Plaster has a connection with the body too; plaster casts for broken bones, fabric plasters to protect wounds.
As you immediately enter the room the violence of the scene will not be obvious. I would hope to create a bloody elegance, inspired by Ana Mendieta’s blood signs and body tracks where she runs blood and paint covered arms down the length of a surface. This is how I would prepare the sculptures. For the hanging of them, and in the casting process I would refer back to the carcasses in the slaughterhouse.
As you commence further down the walkway the reality of the scene will become more obvious, added to by the iron-tainted smell of blood. If it were actually in an abattoir and not just a space that tried to emulate one you would have that smell engrained within the walls. But essentially the objects themselves should still be beautiful (in the abject sense of the word).
It could be interesting to increase the claustrophobic feel to the space by turning the walkway into a Circus-esque mirror maze, so even if the viewer were to give in to their natural instincts to remove themselves from these ‘abjects’, they will be reflected all around the room wherever they look. Not to mention this would heighten the playful or shocking feel of a freak show often associated with the abject. I am still deliberating as to how to appeal to the sense of hearing. I feel I would have to venture to either extreme; a complete and unsettling, yet reverent silence, or abrasive noises that would disrupt the quiet of the space and go against the notion of respect generally held in white gallery spaces. Despite this being one of my aims, I think I would instinctively opt for silence, holding the aggression of the space under a kind of silent scream.
As well as a kind of commemoration of the events in an abattoir this would be like a reflection and indeed memorial of the plight of the woman artist as it seems within history. It might be obvious, pretentious, and possibly not even very good. But through my research it seems at points in the history of female art woman wanted to make the world stop and stare, reflect and accept. And I feel there is an element of that in what I want to achieve.
References
Julia Kristeva, Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection (Columbia University Press, 1982)
http://action.peta.org.uk/ea-campaign/clientcampaign.do?ea.client.id=5&ea.campaign.id=5133 (accessed 14/03/2010)
Video footage at a slaughterhouse, http://www.animalaid.org.uk/h/f/CAMPAIGNS/blog//4//?be_id=211 (accessed 14/03/2010)
Georgia Fee, History from Her Perspective: http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.artslant.com/userimages/3/blood_signs.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.artslant.com/par/articles/show/9511&usg=__-kTaabIpY_B4Gx-OgrajnPcKSCI=&h=386&w=500&sz=29&hl=en&start=18&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=oggWbPOmciI04M:&tbnh=100&tbnw=130&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dana%2Bmendieta,%2BBody%2BPrints%2B1974%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26tbs%3Disch:1 (Accessed 14/03/2010)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/turnerprize/history/img/1999_emin.jpg (Accessed 16/03/2010)
Image References
Abattoir
http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/200807/r267095_1118207.jpg
Marina Abramovic
http://toil2.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/marina-abramovic-ulay-imponderabillia-1977.jpg
Corridor
http://www.islandfarm.fsnet.co.uk/Island%20Farm%20Today/Corridor.jpg
Mirror Corridor
http://images.elfwood.com/art/d/e/denw2/maze.jpg
Ana Mendieta, 'Body Tracks'
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj351eRF0oHlMLuAcsL89fPuddVu6ukn-0GP6QJGaF7PIv3o6niFXQ3a1-CknHXh92l9lODdwt3x2oLskCtRlq6XqJOd0CCWwJzQOm-PuincxGQnOyy1qQdOodmfaNgD-MzGqz74PBYAYjM/s400/07+ana+mendieta.jpg
