When I first started this project I wanted to explore skin. I had read an interesting quote by Paul Valéry in his book L’idée fixe où deux hommes a la mer, in which a doctor says to a philosophy student ‘Ce qu’il ya de plus profond dans l’homme, c’est la peau’ which means what is most profound or deep in man, is skin. This quote stayed with me for almost a year before I used it as a starting point for my next performance project.
In his dialogue the doctor explains that when we develop in the womb, we develop skin first. This idea of skin being a beginning and being profound was what I found most interesting, because skin, in my mind, had always been considered as truly superficial, literally the surface of our body. By calling the surface depth and the beginning of our existence, I decided I want to explore it through movement, and looking at this surface again.
I had tried different materials with not much luck, until I decided to give plaster a shot. I did not think I would get much out of it.
Then after some difficulty to get it to set, as this was a new material, I plastered it on my body. The way the plaster reacted to my skin, its temperature and that affect on my movements, was so compelling that I decided to use it as my main material. I decided I wanted to be covered in plaster and break free by movement to rediscover the body beneath and finally wash the plaster off. The use of plaster created new angles:
- The relationship between object (plaster) and subject (performer):
During my rehearsals I realized just how much the plaster and how it placement on my body (by other people) affected my movements and the atmosphere at times within the performance. Every performance was different, not only due to improvisation which became imperative as it became clear just how fickle plaster was, but also due to the nature of those differences which affected the whole atmosphere of the performance. When hard, the plaster would fall and break, and it sound would echo through the room like porcelain. There were dust clouds that immersed the audience in lightness. When wet, it fell to ground fast and less graceful, like a piece of flesh which completely contrasted the delicacy of solid plaster. The sound was amplified as I used contact microphones. - Nudity and nakedness and its references to art history (such as Degas):
My
nakedness throughout the performance prompted a question on which I wrote my dissertation, which you can read here if interested in this particular angle. The question was if a body could ever truly be naked without turning into an artistic nude inside the artistic space. From the beginning I realized there was a certain vulnerability in my nakedness, certainly in the end when the plaster would be washed off. Washing is both ritualistic but also private. I added an element of voyeurism that called out voyeurism of the male gaze throughout art history. In contemporary performance the artistic space is not static anymore, we bring the practice outside the space, but the naked body remains difficult. I gave my audience even more power. I decided to add an interactive factor. Underneath the plaster I had laid strings which were laid out onto the ground. The audience would have to make the first break for me to start my performance.
I would like to expand this performance with different bodies and alter certain things. I would also like to keep examining skin, as this performance only ‘scratched’ the surface.
Additional media can be found here.
Céline Deveux 