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Doran George
- Santa Monica, California
- United States
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THE BODY IS ALWAYS ALREADY ENGAGED
HOW CAN THE BODY BE? WHAT CAN THE BODY BE?
My residency with The Art of Engagement is concerned with how the body can be, and is, seen or known as such, and what the body is and how the body becomes what it is as such. I understand engagement to be a process that the body is always already participating in across a matrix of terms, so much so that to talk about 'the' body is to elide the very thing that we might want to approach. The placement of the preposition situates ‘body’ as something that can exist as discrete, thereby robbing the term of the very engagement it signifies. I understand the practice of cultural production generally and art in particular to be a central mechanism in how these questions play out in our different life worlds. So by way of introduction, I want to suggest that practising engagement, for me, is not a political project in the context of art, rather I am interested in bringing into view and redefining of the politics of art practice as a corporeal project; opening critical space for (the) body.
Doran George
My residency with The Art of Engagement is concerned with how the body can be, and is, seen or known as such, and what the body is and how the body becomes what it is as such. I understand engagement to be a process that the body is always already participating in across a matrix of terms, so much so that to talk about 'the' body is to elide the very thing that we might want to approach. The placement of the preposition situates ‘body’ as something that can exist as discrete, thereby robbing the term of the very engagement it signifies. I understand the practice of cultural production generally and art in particular to be a central mechanism in how these questions play out in our different life worlds. So by way of introduction, I want to suggest that practising engagement, for me, is not a political project in the context of art, rather I am interested in bringing into view and redefining of the politics of art practice as a corporeal project; opening critical space for (the) body.
Doran George
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Coming of age: the ritual body
In collaboration with the first person with whom I had sex, I made the work Since 1986. (Commissioned by Arnolifini Live, UK, 2001-2002) The project took place over a 10 month period, mimicking the length of the relationship I’d had with my collaborator 16 years ago when I was 16. It involved ongoing communication and letter-writing, casting of bodies, reconstruction (including a re-enactment of the first sexual encounter), and devised rituals which led to an exhibition and performance at the Ar… Continue
Posted on December 6, 2008 at 2:28pm —
Remnants of class: constructing the art object through engagement
In 2001 I was encased in bricks and mortar in an empty shop in south London’s Elephant and Castle shopping centre for the length of a working day. The work was simultaneously a ‘durational performance’ called Remnants of the Original for an audience procured through ‘art world’ marketing, and public art called A room for improvement for passers-by who may have seen posters locally. The art audience signed contracts with me to enter the empty shop and witness the bricking up, leave and return for… Continue
Posted on November 10, 2008 at 12:17pm — 3 Comments
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We can also respond by re-reading, puzzling, considering the context of "Remnants of class", the Untitled Pictures, and the bereavement projects on the website. "Remnants" reminds me of a recent piece by Rirkrit Tiravanija, which involved a bricked-up wall, some months later dismantled, while we assumed, but did not know for sure that no-body was within.
Fantastic Bullshit I would say
want to get in touch with the body then shut the hell UP.
best bet is the body knows no words
You seem to have lots of hot air
But not much else
Body Body Body
Way out there man is all I can say Fixated on something you actually know very little about
Talk to farmers they know Talk to starving people they will tell you
You want space for your own body I would guess Not the BODY
The Body is all of us all beings all plant animal bird water eart stuff
You want to be some kind of BODY HERO
Want to talk Pigeons Or Yaks Or Horses
Want to Talk Roses or Potatoes
Perhaps even lowly grass
Weeds If there is such a thing
How about the stones my mother gave me before she died
How about the shit my animals create
Is that Body
The shit that grows food
What shit food is all your words growing
Nothing
Nothing Nothing
Just a jib man Can your body take the shock of being unreal
Phony words man
What scholl did you learn them at
What will they produce?
Body slam
Uncle Sam
Cheers from Canada