b'T3 Journal - Student Writing in Drama, University of Exeter 2019-20Discuss the relationship between surgery, medicine, live and performance art which takes as its primary representative mode the body and its boundaries.An extract from an essay submitted as part of the optional second-year module Theatre and Health.Short EssaysSonia ThakurdesaiI would like to discuss the body and its boundaries inSome performance art pushes the spectators boundaries relation to the act of cutting. Let us begin by reflecting onof how long they will endure and allow the performance a passage written by Bosch:to continue without intervention when pain is concerned. Rhythm 5, another of Abramovis works is a clear example Skin forms the interface between bodies and worlds, it is the site(Abramovi 1974). In this, Abramovi constructed a large where identity is mapped out in terms of cultural identifications andstar with wood shavings soaked in petrol, cut her hair and markings upon the surface of the body. (Bosch 2006: 1) fingernailsboth were thrown into the fire and entered the centre of the star. The performance lasted an hour This concept, of the skin being the barrier separating theand half before she collapsed from the lack of oxygen inner body from the outer world, is important to keep inwithin the star (which she was unaware would happen) mind regarding performance artists using their body asand an audience member pulled her out unconscious from medium for their work. Returning to Eastern ideas of thethe fire (Richards 2010: 86). This is an example of what mind-body continuum, the skin is the membrane at whichCarlson states is Dramatized pain [.], which serv[es] our soul encounters the world. To break the skin wouldas a call to action for the spectator (Carlson 2010:6). mean for the boundaries of the body to be pushed and theWhilst Abramovis work is described as performance art soul to spill out into the exterior and material world.as opposed to a drama, I would argue that her work is dramatized because of the way it is framed for an audience Skin communicates. Skin signals. Skin tells a story.and because there is play in terms of the relationship (Strong 2005: 17). Putting particular emphasis on the wordbetween performer/subject and spectator. Similar can be signals, I want to bring Lindemanns idea of the body asseen in the performance of medicine. Doctor and patient a system of signs into play (Lindemann 2010: 12). Semioticare engaged in play and the doctors gaze searches for the analysis can thereby be applied when regarding the bodynature and combination of symptoms, crises, and other in both performance art and medical settings. In art, thecircumstances that accompany disease (Foucault 2012: audience are decodifying and creating meaning from signs7). Another example of signs being read by spectators presented by the artist. For example, as part of Abramovis(audience and doctor) when the performer/patients body Lips of Thomas, she takes a razor to her stomach, cutting ais the site of performance. five-pointed star (Abramovi 1975). As Richards puts it: The bleeding star instantiated socialisms psychologicalReturning to cutting: it is a controversial topic as various and physical markings on the body [.] [T]he red star wasethical questions arise, such as who has the right to cut a dominant symbol of Yugoslavian communism fora body? Is the answer different once a person dies? With decades. (Richards 2010: 12). Evidence of the body as athe loss of ownership of the body in dissections, the body sign system is also present in medical settings. Look at thebecomes a specimen- a scientific and medical term for example of bruising: if we apply Saussures method, thea sample of material. The individual is no longer taken signifier is the darkened purple skin and the signified isaccount of and thus is object to the medical gaze (OBryan the bruise (Aston and Savona 1991: 5-6). Both the audience2005: 68). It is normal to expect a doctor to know better and the doctor decode signs to understand their subject,for their patients body than the patient themselves. or as many patients feel, object.Cutting is a crucial procedure in medicine and is accepted 44'