During my last post, I wrote that I wanted to base my research on the human body. Now, I wasn’t very specific on which area I wanted to focus on because the idea behind the human body could go from researching about the actual human body to the personality behind the human body, etc.
I started my research by reading a book called “Materiality// Documents of Contemporary Art” edited by Petra Lange-Berndt. The book itself had so many ideas about materiality in art by different artists; looking at materials that interfere with social norms and unstable substances, exploring with variety of materials and examining the relationship between materiality and bodies. This book covers a variety of different topics but the one section of the book that was interesting was called “Bodies That Matter” which included a mixture of mini chapters about the body; from hints about gender hierarchies to using hair, urine and food as materials to create art and use it to revolt against dominant social orders.
The topics within that area that caught my eye was a chapter called “Bodies That Matter” by Judith Butler (the chapter itself are extracts from her book called “Bodies That Matter”) where she talks about materiality of sex. “How is gender constituted as and through a certain interpretation of sex? (a question that leaves the ‘matter’ of sex untheorized), but rather, through what regulatory norms is sex itself materialised?” (Judith Butler, Bodies That Matter, 1993; edited by Petra Lange-Berndt). The mini chapter in the book is not quite detailed as it only has a part of the actual book. But the chapter itself covers about materiality of sex (more about the form of men and women, “the matters of the body”) and that “materiality is constructed through a problematic gendered matrix, then the discursive practice by which matter is rendered irreducible simultaneously ontologies and fixes that gendered matrix in its place.” (Judith Butler, Bodies That Matter, 1993; edited by Petra Lange-Berndt).
I know. It’s a mouthful of words!
Honestly, it was really confusing so I decided to pick apart the paragraph and focused on the word GENDER. Since the book only had extracts of the actual book, I read through many other mini chapters/theory within the book. There was another theory within the book called “Aspects of Feminist Actionism” by Valie Export. First of all, what an amazing title! Secondly, what was so interesting about the theory was when she suggests that “Regardless of whether the material consisted of the body or objects, in reality the drama of material was a drama of meaning. Material was the stage for various meanings, not only processing and integrating people’s experiences, but also activating their ability to experience and sharpening their awareness of the meanings the material called forth.” (Valie Export, Aspects of Feminist Actionism, 1980, edited by Petra Lange-Berndt)
If I put my own spin on this; the way I see this suggestion is that the “material” is the body and the drama behind the “material” (which is the body) could imply the discussion about gender. Gender has various meanings, it could be from the differences between men and women to facing issues about gender identity. Not only does gender processes and combines people’s experiences but also activates their experience and gives them knowledge behind the meaning of gender thus exploring the “materiality” of the body.
In conclusion, my view about materiality has changed. When I first tried to mind map the idea about materiality, all I could think about was materials like lipsticks or shoes, never really thinking outside the box. But after reading some chapters from the book, it changed my views and made me look at the “materiality” in a different light. The word “materiality” has a meaning behind it; the body being the material and gender being the “materiality of the body”.
Bipana
Question of Research 