Liminal Spaces Within The Transgressive Body by Colleen Walker, U.C.C.2004

Introduction
Is it possible for a body to be described as having liminal spaces? The word liminal comes from the Latin ‘Limen’ (HyperDictionary, 2003) and refers to a threshold, not only the threshold for example of a door entrance but also that of a sensory threshold. The latter definition certainly has associations with the body, for most of us are born with the five senses consisting of sight, smell, taste, touch and hearing. The body is also endowed with the physical thresholds of ears, eyes, mouth, anus and vagina, parts of the body where insides and outsides merge, all qualify as liminal spaces.

It is the merging of the inside and outside of the body in relation to abject Performance Art that will form the basis for this investigation. Susan Broadhurst (1999, p.12) refers to some of the features of liminal performance as being “corporeal…marginalised…on the edge”. All of these elements can be recognised in the work of performance artist Franko B, but is it possible for other associations to be made as well?  By examining certain key elements of Franko B’s performances and analysing them within the wider context of the society we live in, can the liminal spaces within the body represent more than the merging of the inside and outside? Is it possible for these liminal spaces to represent the marginalised within society? How is marginalised defined, who are the marginalised and why? Can an artist’s body be used as a catalyst for expressing and highlighting these and other issues within society?

The body in the last ten years or so has become more ‘outer’. It is no longer a genetically given definitive, but can be changed, enhanced, replaced. Genetic engineering and medical/scientific advances are constantly striving to refine, replace and manipulate what was once a “god given” body. Diseased and worn out body parts including heart, lungs, liver, kidney, eyes, hips and knee cap all and more can be replaced. Cosmetically if we are no longer satisfied with our physical appearance we can change it.

fig.1 Botox injections, fig 2 Toe reduction surgery

The Media represents the body as beautiful, youthful, slim and healthy; there is no room for the sick, old, decrepit or diseased. Modern technology can create computer generated images of bodies that do not exist in real life; if you want it you can have the face of Madonna and the rear of Jennifer Lopez all at the click of a button. The body has become the site on which status, desire, identity and expression are represented, acted out and yet within this hierarchal society one must conform in order to belong is particularly relevant with regard to the latest fashion of tattooing, body piercing and the even more extreme branding. All used as a sign of self-expression, of rebellion against society, but at the same time of conforming to the expectations of ones peer group.

fig.3 The tattooed, pierced and branded body of Jason Oliver has “developed an exterior ‘to match’ his interior”(Oliver, 2003, p.24).

Historically the body has been used as a site of both spiritual and political artifice, in the past there were fasting medieval holy women to the present day when devout shias flagellate themselves using chains and razors in search of spiritual atonement. The body has also been used as a political instrument, the image of the lone student standing in front of an armoured tank in the Tiananman Square uprising in 1989 is replaced today by the recent shocking image in the newspaper of refugee Abbas Amini with stitched up eyes and mouth in protest against being sent back to Iran (Azad, 2003). The body as Seat of Power is being compromised, for although we appear to have more freedom of choice, our civil liberty is increasingly being eroded away by state legislation. We daily witness the body as the recipient of violence towards and upon it through television and film, however, these images appear detached from us, distant and unreal.

fig.4 Shias, fig5 Abbas Amini

Since the early 1990’s there has been a resurgence in Body Art and in particular performing the abject. Why has ‘The Body’ in Performance Art become the site for discourse on ‘The Real’ as both maker and material and in particular what does the abject body signify today? We are all fascinated by our bodies and how they work; the recent exhibition “Body Worlds”1 confirmed this fascination drawing huge numbers of visitors to it. Body Art or Performance Art is historically a phenomenon that developed in the early 1960’s. It is particularly in relation to the abject body and its validity as social political vehicle in expressing and communicating its message in the cultural melange that is life in the 21st century that is intriguing.

1 Professor Gunthard Von Hagen’s exhibition at the Atlantis Gallery, London in 2002 featured human bodies that had been treated using a Plastination process and anatomically displayed.

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Introduction
Tracing Foundations
The Artist’s Body
Broken Boundaries
Religion, Ritual, Shaman
Nudity and Nakedness
Corporeality
The Gift
Conclusion
Illustrations
Bibliography