CURRENT AND FUTURE ACTIONS

As mentioned at the post http://burnandsurrender.blogspot.de/2012/09/interactive-psychomagic-actions.html  some of the actions to come yet are suggested, today I am actually going to Teufelsberg- which is an old spy base and a mountain of rubble from ww2 and east Berlin burying a nazi training school to wash and plant a tree with a group of friends. I am also going to lie in the street in my sleeping bag at Alexanderplatz civic area as if a street performer/busker/homeless dreamer/occupy protester with a small box asking for people's 'dreams' to be inserted into the box with paper and a pen tied to the box. Above is me at the Brandenburg gate doing a yoga pose, but actually as a tourist, something inextricably bound to money and culture as an example of something I will do- yoga poses on the matt infront of the Reichstag tourist line. Below is a time I attempted to do Tarot readings again in the tourisic Mauer park during summer to no avail and also did about 10 readings for friends and strangers at Tempelhof (left) at the guerilla organic gardens, which is something I will be doing- on the trains and in the street. These things are suggestions of 'private' actions regarding the female erotic/body in 'public' spaces- inherently a vulnerable action to take. 

Sleeping, dreaming, washing, tarot, yoga, meditation, in public, as an artist, as a tourist, a woman, a performer, busker, healer, in front of banks, shopping malls, on trains, at monumental tourist sites, these things are tied to money systems and identities which resist objectified and cliched notions of the female erotic body in relation to money systems. As outlined in my project, they become psychomagic actions - initiated by my communities/friends/myself and remove or question the exchange of money instead replaced with the idea of giving and being for its own sake. Reclaiming this. Not wanting anything, not buying into a relationship which is bound up in the consumerism of the female erotic body via money systems. Present and visible in private/public actions. In private, documented, publicly interactive. Also documented. I am about to really begin having prepared a lot... 

EURO LIGHT SCULPTURE FRANKFURT: SACRI/$/BODY 1st STREET ACTION: INFRONT OF EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK

This is my first "psychomagic" public performance action photographed in Frankfurt. All photos are by Elsa Thorp, my photographic collaborator whose "suggestion" this psychomagic action of being in front of the Euro light sign was in response to my letter and concept for this project. She is from NZ, but based in Berlin. We combined our ideas together, my idea of meditating/dancing/begging in front of a bank and also the Oracle of Delphi performance in Frankfurt, with her Euro sign in Frankfurt photo idea, as this is in front of the European Central Bank. We combined my performance trip to Leonhardi Kulturprojecte with this, which she also documented (post below). These different performances are all forms of the MFA project. I discovered that this site is the site of the Occupy Frankfurt began as a worldwide movement in 2011 and still exists to the right, also it is a site for where the 'Roma' (Romanian gypsies) beg, which I also did not know until I arrived. My imagery was morphed together prior to this, but seems to relate. Reclaiming feminine sacred power/bodily and intuitive wisdom is present here. It is also meant to have humour. It is a meditating protest dance performance on a saturday night. This idea of 'giving' has come up already a lot in relation to the female erotic body/power of the feminine and sexuality as something which subtley subverts and eludes money systems. Giving freely of this body in a way which uses but does not exploit female sexuality is something which directly opposes money systems, though women's/people's unpaid labour is ever present in capitalism also. Performance art psychomagic becomes an offering, something for party goers and tourists to think about, I am not busking or asking for anything here. I am not exploiting my body, I am implying something different I hope in morphing together a variety of gestures and performance actions. This has been the culmination of studio actions and concepts derived through the process, as explained in posts prior, red is the colour of the root chakra: money/sexuality/survival/community. I wanted an outfit which covered my body, protected it, which was also open to readings on many levels, across cultures. I am sitting on a yoga matt I use daily.

 

STAR: ORACLE OF DELPHI: FRANKFURT LEONHARDI KULTURPROJECKTE

 https://vimeo.com/51595229

Photos by Elsa Thorp

This live performance integrated my work 'The Star' - a development through the year with 'Oracle of Delphi' which integrates many of the studio actions I discovered in an interactive performance which asked the asked audience to asked me questions to which I responded in 'psychomagic' actions or administered 'psychomagic' actions to the audience. I sat upon my yoga matt which a range of objects used in my studio rehearsals which are discarded from my life or used as part of the project. 5 actions were performed to questions "you said the wall has the power- why?' (I asked him to write his family's name in spray paint on the wall) "what is the meaning of Frankfurt?" (I put my rose quartz on my chest and put a handy towel used roll in my mouth, made animal sounds through it and tried to light it, then threw 1 cent pieces at the window) "what about love?" (I asked the man to take a tarot card from my animal pack, he chose whale- souls path, honour your souls purpose) "what is the book you have written?" (I picked up Bataille showed it to the audience and said I did not write this book) "will we be ok?" (I put on my hair dye plastic gloves and took a toilet roll and gave it to the man who was sitting at one end of a semi circle, then took it around the group, I then took off my dress, put on my collaborator lucy beeler's music, did flapping actions, took off my underwear and singlet and danced a tai chi like routine, also slid my obsidian crystal to the man asking- which is absorbs negativity") I concluded the performance by joining the question mark the first man had drawn on the wall into a heart and wrote END. Bowing.

I was interested in this format within an art gallery/fine arts performance context- playing with things from my rehearsals and testing out in a public audience space this idea of 'female wisdom' (Oracle of Delphi) within the Book Fair week as an extension of the female erotic body, but also again tying ideas of this 'giving' and the administering and performing of 'psychomagic' actions in a reasonably controlled environment. Where does the idea of 'sexuality' or the 'female erotic body' begin and end when it is generally so bound to money, so to include all associated with female embodiment is challenging to cliches.

Bathing in bureaucracy/money=sacred body cleanse & erotic paint job

Revised question: How can the un/sacred female erotic body subvert, resist or transform oppressive relationships to, in and around sacrilised power systems of money through 'psychomagic' actions?

BLOOD: A blood nose 3 times in one day. Blood leaving the body is always a sacred or erotic /abject act. Bataille talks about transgression in his book 'Eroticism: Death and Sensuality' in which sex and death are the 2 biggest transgressive actions because they have cultural taboos, which are automatically open for breaking. Kristeva talks about the 'abject' as that which we do not want to know of- that which we other or repress- the 'abjected'- anything which transgresses the borders of our body, that which comes out from inside.. as a reminder of our mortality, often found in horror films and sometimes art. Mother is the ultimate 'abject' figure as she gives birth to us all and reminds us that we are not autonomous, we came from her body- the ultimate transgression to 'wholeness' and so we must repress her power over us- our reminder of mortality. This blood nose is an everyday act, I think it evokes many implications. Whether these are erotic or not I'm not sure.. but I thought I would include them. The film 'Crash' written by Ballard turned injuries/crash victims into erotic transgressive figures, equating Freud's 'wound'/castration with eroticism.

I have added this pic from years ago in NZ as a parallel, the bleeding nose is very much like this. I have an obsession with running blood. The metaphor is there I think with the bleeding nose. Below is a pic I took when first arriving in Berlin again documenting the artist's bleeding body/residue of an action.

Pregnancy Healthcare: Me and a German Visa

To stay in Germany, to be able to do Transart - because going back and forward to NZ is incredibly far and incredibly expensive and there have been no students yet coming from NZ or Australia back and forward- I am required by law to get health insurance, which is inclusive of pregnancy health care. I am not allowed NZ health insurance but in British companies which German law does recognise pregnancy cover is twice the price of normal cover, so the amount paying monthly is double for being the mere fact, a woman. The first year does not even cover if I were to get pregnant so i am essentially paying money for nothing because I have a womb, just to be able to reside in Germany. This actually made me leave Berlin 2 years ago as I could not afford to pay this as a single female artist per month living in a city with 20 percent unemployment during a recession. However, I am applying for an artist visa tomorrow via Auslander Behorder, having paid this insurance again, which hopefully I will get. I have not worked out yet how to include this experience into my current research but it totally relates. Money systems and the control of female sexuality - through money, through borders, visas. Through even studying, I am not able to get a visa, therefore this is the only option. Perhaps in my second year - when I am covered by the pregnancy care I will get pregnant and use the system as they fear me doing so as part of my study! :) I am joking.

Oh and I did not get this visa because of this insurance!! Bureaucracy- the german office said the British company did not fill in the required form to say that they comply with german law, while the British company who would not fill in the form on the grounds that the german law changes continually (which it does i can vouch for this over the years) so each blamed the other while the insurance was correct and so I did not get a visa and cancelled the insurance! My tourist visa was extended.

New thoughts: Female sacred body/erotic body & money systems

A project which began broadly as ‘what is sacred in contemporary society from a political standpoint?’ through which I worked in the studio and daily practice ‘organically’ and ‘generatively’ to uncover glaringly synchronising and unifying principles which interested me, which my supervisors also pushed me toward clarifying and narrowing down to. The question is now:

What are some of the oppressive+ resistive transgressions of sacrilised power between money systems and the female erotic body in contemporary society?

At the moment the project is called ‘Sacri/$/Body’.

One thing I am noticing though is that there is a veering away in the project at the moment from very direct and obvious archetypes of female sexuality in relation to money such as you mention prostitutes, strippers, porn.. because for me- these are not so much disruptive to the money system or subverting but very much dominated and controlled by it... so things which are 'reclaimed' as sacred female sexuality/erotic body seem to sit outside these... away from money. I think that all of this will digest and play out over the 2 years of my MFA and become clarified in the 2nd year the relationships between.. 

But for now- i find that for example i want to put underwear at the ATMs with messages in them, as 'an installation' and remove the actual body (as suggestion by one woman about the power play of strippers and money in or out of underwear) next to atm which is money in and out.. very sexual also. Messages more from the 'sacred' female expression.. the mysterious.. the what is that? Questions.. something to make people think! I would love if people also left messages back... but i've no way to monitor this in public spaces, i can stand at a distance and photo/video document. Or i can question them after.. if they engage. But people are likely to take things.. while a gallery situation might be safer.. i like the idea of at the atm.

This is a bad example- as it still relates to stripping.. but it moves away from objectification into questions.. 

More like- ok having a bath.. this is a sacred and quite erotic act.. it is very private. 
Meditation, the body is inherently erotic.
Yoga, it is connecting to the sacred body.. yet when you look at the poses from the outside objectively they look very sexual! 'open'.
Even painting the body, or make up or dressing oneself or others.. these are more subtle, but erotic actions.. 
dancing also. Singing?
Sleeping, dreaming.. sacred, regenerative, erotic also.
Massage?
Hair - is very sensual... hair cutting..
Tattooing? maybe i get a tattoo as a performance..
Also kissing.. 

These things i guess are more transformative.. but i guess what i am saying is that there is room for the subtle, the actual female erotic.. not the 'sold' one. Mothering, cooking.. giving, nurturing, all these things.. they are not aggressive or exploitative- they are exploited like everything is.. by money but not in the way that female sexuality is. 

But I am also interested in the hard core stuff as well, as I said, it will integrate once the project gains momentum. To begin i want to do some of these subtler actions.. 

These subtler experiences of everything female sexual body are things to work in with money systems somehow.. like symbolic actions which can disrupt or question- particularly private actions in public places.. create questions. Whereas we are very used to seeing supposedly private sexual acts publicly everywhere - even in advertising.. the exploitation. It is a big question i am posing- is it possible to reflect and heal back the other way..? more real experiences.. ones that don't disempower but re-empower and heal, through real experience. Through actual female experience of themselves and in relation to money systems. Not the ones dictated.. the counter, the subversion. 

There is also the 2 fold thing of power as sacred, sacred as power.. 'money as sacred' - ie exclusive.. sacrilised/systemistised .. also female sexuality/erotic body as power as sacred (like you suggest in your relationship at the moment you have the power.. because you dictate when sexual interactions happen due to libido?) - outside of money.. and then - with the relationship between the 2 having been so warped and a 'power play' in which the prostitute the stripper and porn industry become 'sacrilised' in their own right- HOW CAN WE SUBVERT, RESIST OR DISRUPT this power dynamic in more sacred and real and powerful ways? Its very psychological right? But also magical. The importance in not speaking is big, that it becomes this action, rather than something talked about, that actions are very powerful (as we know with ritual). Of course if their were words which caused trauma they would probably be incorporated somehow. 

JODOROWSKY - Psychomagic: The transformative power of shamanic psychotherapy

The main essence of his work and theory is creativity, also symbolism and the imagination heals, that we can work with images, symbols, actions, images to unlock deeply patterned unconscious traumas to release pain. As the unconscious is where it is still hiding and directness will only achieve so much. The magic happens at a more subliminal level. Hence why art is so healing. He suggests the mixing of metaphors too, he gives people an action or a ritual (terms) to take. 

Performance artists work in 2 fold ways often, to just work as an intervention in the world with unknown people and communities to impact them subliminally, or to work specifically with particular communities.. i like the idea of working with both, online and offline. Being safe is important to me at the moment, so I have a woman whose kiwi here, a photographer, who will help document things.. and this is effectively creating a safety for me in public. If i do public street art, i am going to have to look into permits, or whether, as ties into the project, because i am not asking for money like a busker, i will not have to get one. :) I am working in a 4 fold process currently- 1) the gathering of friends experiences and ideas 2) my own ideas and processes 3) studio process which enables a safe trial process 4) street intervention.. 'actions' ... the words 'actions' and 'rituals' seem to interchange. 

While street actions - which become public actions of private processes/healings.. will be art in themselves and documented, they and all processes will feed back into a more 'theatrical' presentation outcome eventually including documentation and interactivity.

This is a potential example from the email from a friend which was highly personal- of a psychomagic action to take- which i have suggested to them as an example also - parts which i could also do in response, with them, at the same time somehow.

So for example we could ask you to dress as a man, put flowers and some playboy images in your suit pockets- for 7-8 days go to a place in nature that you feel safe, lie on the earth, pour water over yourself and slowly take your suit off (could be the other way around), then place money gently on your naked body along with flowers. Then drink a beer, or at least sip one. Then go to your brother's dressed in a sexy outfit (whatever this means), with a playboy magazine and rip it up in front of him on the 10th day (however old you were when it happened) and even kick him in the balls (that might be a bit much but he suggests slapping people in the face if they were abusive like a parent or something, so i don't see how this is different). Anyway (I hope that made you atleast laugh!) - but this is the kind of imagery he suggests to people, the mixing of metaphors and symbolic numbers to unlock things and allow the goodness to filter through. I was just tying together all the things that you mentioned, which were somehow restrictive or liberating, to jumble them up, to allow the unconscious to readdress the situations in a new way, to heal them.