This performance is made by my
desire to represent a condition of unity, refering to an existential or a transcendental approach. Almost erotic,
between pleasure and abjection, this performance is a reminder of the
possibility of man´s fulfillment.
In the performance, the performer
is sitting with long dress and her face is covered by a beard made from her
hair. She starts to dress up her hair
while an octopus tentacle is revealed from the mouth. After the tentacle
is showing, she makes a knot with her hair around the tentacle. She starts
pleasantly chewing the tentacle until she cuts it off. The tentalce is an
extension of her hair as she keeps happily eating it, as if it was a bunch of
grapes. When the performer goes away, the piece of performance art is finished.
The conceptual reference is
related to the Androgyne or Hermafrodite myth. The term Androgyne, taken from
the greek works for male and female, literally means combining of sexes, or at
least attributes of both sexes in one figure.
Beside the physical conjuction of
male and females genders, Androgyne has endured as the image of the spiritual
goal for people who have made a total commitment to self-transformation in
order to be greater service in the world.
It also represents the larger
truth of nonduality, the ultimate cosmic unity of all reality. What may seem to
be two-ness actually is oneness seen from a higher level of perception.
For the octopus tentacle, the use
of animal material is necessary for an organic and realistic nature and for
symbolic and aesthetic reasons. I apologise. Since the octopus has eight
tentacles, I can present this piece of performance art eight times in
total.
