2020
Object
Materials: Brass, Fiberglass
Dimensions: 28″ x 28″ x 10″
Photo credit: Michael Arrigo
Performance
single channel HD video
4:08 minutes
Installation
double channel video installation
Dorothy Uber Bryan Gallery, Bowling Green State University
Bowling Green, Ohio
2022
Statement
Mind–body dualism, most famously defended by René Descartes, supports the separation between the head and the body and states that mind can exist outside of the body, or physical matter. It is not until the last ten years when the theory of embodied subjectivity, supported by Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Edmund Husserl, became widely recognized in cognitive science and the art area. Based on embodied cognition, the body is part of the thought and experience process, and therefore, is part of the environment of the mind.
This single-channel video explicitly visualizes a mind-body separation while presenting a performance which implicitly shares with the viewers the inevitable mind-body connection with the perfect synchronization of motions traveling back and forth across all truncated screens. The golden brass neck collar inherits the historical influence of a ruff or a millstone collar from the mid-sixteenth century as a portent symbol of status and wealth. The pink cotton candy, on the other hand, delivers the raw desire and intrinsic motivation through a child’s gaze. The placement of the cotton candy machine, which is right below pelvis height covering the genital area of the performer, heightens this symbolic role. By performatively engaging a well-crafted restraint (the neck collar) and an instinctive temptation (the cotton candy), this performance expresses an overwhelming sense of irony, and presents a constant battle between the heart and the mind.