Connecting Issues

Bodies in Question
STEPHEN ZEPKE
Spinoza has supplied us with one of the most
profound theories of the body. He argues that what a
body is, is defined by what a body does. What a body
can do is governed by the nature and limits of its
power of being affected. This power is formed in each
individual through its relations to other bodies,
relations that compose and decompose us: we
experience joy when another body enters composition
with ours, and sadness when another body
decomposes ours. Consequently, it is our ethical
imperative to pursue those connections which bring
us joy and increase our power, to constantly push
what our body can do. The Bodies in Question
symposium, hosted by the University of Auckland's
Art History Department, convened by Hugh
McGuire, Elizabeth Eastmond, Wendy Vaigro, and
Christopher Braddock, was a body of joyful meetings
and exchanges, increasing our knowledge and power.
Bodies in Question, a Symposium Addressing the Body in Aotearoa/
New Zealand Culture: Representations/Uses/Politics, held at the
University of Auckland 23-26November1995
Fleshly Worn, an exhibition co-ordinated by Christopher
Braddock, held at the ASA Gallery, Auckland, 24 November - 14
December, 1995

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I offer this thou ght from Spinoza partly as retort to

those who charged the symposium's theme was dated
or had somehow been done before. These sniping
bodies, so boring and repetitive, offer a simple
transcendent argument which condemns from above,
refusing to engage, and judging from a pregiven law
of fashion. I hear them only as voices of resentment,
as sad and tired failures to think and have an unique
and exciting experience of 'Bodies'.

The scale of Bodies in Question was large, 76 papers

were presented, and so obviously I was only able to
get to a small fraction. The first paper I took in was
the keynote speech by Ted Gott, the curator of
European Art at the Australian National Gallery (and
my experience of this paper was tempered by the very
reason it was the first I got to; I was preparing my
own paper to be delivered later in the day). So a
certain nervousness animated my body, adding an
appropriate edge to a paper already concerned with
practices and representations taking place on the
'margins' of society. At least so it seemed in the
Auckland City Art Gallery auditorium, in a climate
where entry to exhibitions is restricted, and art is
given the air of pornography by being presented as a
'peep show'. Gott's paper, entitled Sex and the Single
T-Cell: The Taboo of HIV-Positive Sexuality in Australian
Art and Culture was a wide and searching
consideration of Australian art concerning HIV I AIDS,
most specifically various HIV-positive publicity
campaigns, their political fall out, and the
representational strategies they employ.
Gott' s paper moved from a personal celebration of
fuck-bars and HIV-positive friends, to adept criticism
of public health strategies. It offered much in the way
of both information and analysis, always refusing to
slip into pathos or tragedy in response to the AIDS
epidemic, instead celebrating the love and joy evident
in the HIV-positive community.
Two aspects of Gott' s address stood out for me.
First was his astute analysis of the semiotics of
Australian safe-sex poster campaigns, and his
criticism of the government's predictably stupid
moral outrage to photographs of people with AIDS
engaged in sexual activity (how contemptible it is to
deny them the right to pleasure and joy). The
unflinching nature of much of this material was to
make an interesting contrast with safe- sex campaigns
in Aotearoa New Zealand, as they were presented by
Anton Mischewski in his paper Politicising PleasuresDangers or Contingent Possibilities: The (re)presentation
of 'gay' bodies and HIV/AIDS. Our images were
remarkably more demure, and more involved in a
multi- cultural approach, a general observation about
trans- Tasman differences perhaps.
The second delight of Gott's paper was the
comparisons he drew between material produced
from within the HIV I AIDS community, and that from
mainstream gay culture. The comparison was
particularly exciting when applied to pornography:
the humour, pride and general hunkiness of, for want
of a better term, HIV- positive porn, combined turn-on
and tongue-in- cheek- critique. It accepted no pity,

and presented bodies and brains in a way other porn

could do well to emulate. Indeed Gott's sexy paper
similarly combined titillation and stimulation for the
body and brain, making it a most appropriate
response to the theme of the conference, discussing
the contemporary crises of the body with dignity and
humour and contributing an impressive benchmark
for the rest of the conference to aspire to.
We were not to wait long for just such an aspiring
paper. Two and a half hours after Gott's paper Ron
Brownson took to the stage to perform Secret Salvage:
The Unknown Photographs of Theo Schoon. And what a
performance it was! Presenting male nudes by Schoon
which had never been publicly shown before,
Brownson gave us titillation not so much in the
images themselves, which were too brilliantly striking
to be dismissed with a wink and a titter, but in the
way Brownson contextualised them, as evidence for
the classic gay tragi-comedy: 'he only falls in love
with straight men'. And so, in a piece of rhetorical
brilliance, Brownson led us into a world where
Schoon's models 'collaborated' with him in the
making of the photographs. Schoon's seductions
therefore, although supposedly taking place only
through the camera, were nevertheless laced by
Brownson with healthy doses of an unhealthy other,

(opposite above) PETER MADDEN In Site 1995

Mixed media, dimensions variable
(opposite below)Relaxing at the Bodies in Question Symposium
(left to right) Christopher Braddock, Pam ela Zeplin, Miss Fa ncy
Stitchin & Elizabeth Eastmond (Photograph: Pamela Zeplin)
(right) THEO SCHOON Brent Hasselyn, Randwick 1973
Gelatin silver photograph
(Private collection, Auckland)

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the 'undercover homo' of course, and an associated

Aryan profile lurking beneath the clean-cut army-boy
muscles and refreshingly guileless (but in Brownson's
show, hopelessly suspicious) smiles. That Brownson's
performance allowed us to enjoy indulging such
pathos is surely an excuse worthy of Roger Blackley's
question as to why, if none of Schoon's models were
gay, some of the images Brownson did not show us
contained single men and couples with erections?
Brownson's paper led into and dialogued with
another very impressive contribution, Damien
Skinner's The Native Body in the Photographs of Theo
Schoon . This time Schoon's photos of native Balinese,
and of himself in native Balinese garb, were used to
discuss Schoon's theories of multi-culturalism.
Through challenging readings of the images, and in
discussions of anthropological work carried out by
Gregory Bateson and Margaret Mead in Bali at the
time of Schoon' s childhood there, Skinner was able to
suggest that Schoon embodied and theorised a
cultural strategy which rested on masquerade, not as
a power of simulation, but rather as a valid, energetic
and real engagement with another culture. I look
forward to the MA thesis.
Questions of the body were taken into a very
interesting area in the one dance session I attended.
Dance is a formalised language and strict semiotic
system, both in its forms of expression and in its
performing body. As a distinct art form it requires a
strict regime, an entire disciplinary apparatus, to
produce the body which may write, which may
dance. Dr. Eluned Summers- Bremmer's paper
Reading Irigaray, dancing explored a feminist critique
of dance as a disciplinary and phallocratic institution,
but at the same time attempted to utilise Luce
Irigaray's metaphor of dance, both practically and
theoretically. Dr Summers-Bremmer gestured
gracefully towards ways in which Irigaray's theories
of female fluidity and multiplicity could be used to
inform both a contemporary dance and a
contemporary feminism, which critiqued older
oppressive forms and itself embodied a new female
body.
Having had my eyes so dramatically opened to
dance as an exciting medium, the following paper,
Charles McGuiness' s Depicting the Body on Film,
fascinated them further. McGuiness showed a series
of film and video excerpts which depicted dance, and
explained many of the filmic strategies used. He also,
and this was the guts of the matter, explored the
nature of this embodiment, from body to film,
whereby the translation of dance to film and video
worked to disrupt the languages of each discourse.
Through this process of (mis)translation, which was
also obviously a process of creation, McGuiness was
able to suggest a fascinating confluence of dance and
film and video in the avant- garde. A dancing
technological body.
And lastly, there are all the mentions that I have
run out of space to discuss at length. There were
many artist's talks given as part of the conference, and
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this was one of its strengths. I particularly enjoyed

those given by Joyce Campbell, Christopher Braddock
and John Cousins. I also met Susan Ballard after I had
missed her paper, but feel convinced by that
experience and other's comments that her paper
Cyborg Theory Fictions of the Body was excellent. Lastly,
I would like to mention the last paper I saw, Catherine
Munro' s The Passionate Body: Art the Act of Becoming.
Having seen a few artist talks in my time I feel
qualified to say that this one was truly amazing. Not
only for the clear and informative way we were lead
into the work, but especially in the brave and
unflinchingly personal nature of the information we
were given. It was as if we, as audience, had become
part of Munro's artistic practice, for that is what the
talk seemed in its power and honesty. You have
created a fan! Courageous and spectacular, Munro's
paper was certainly a fitting end to a fine conference.

The group show entitled Fleshly Worn, was 'coordinated' by Christopher Braddock who invited each
of the 16 artists to make a new work in response to the
title. The show's title obviously invited a wide range
of response, and this was certainly the case. As a body
it was diverse and surprising, both in the work itself,
and in the strange juxtapositions created. My
experience of the exhibition was double and
completely different, first on opening night, and
second, a few days later alone in the gallery.
Opening night was a biggie. The place was packed
when I arrived, and John Pule had just begun his
performance Pacific Holiday. Because of my late arrival
I had a terrible view, and couldn' t see Pule himself. I
could hear him however, as he read his poetry to the
accompaniment of soft drumming. I could also see the
slides he projected onto one gallery wall of various
kitsch Pacific sunsets and smiling Pacific maidens.
Pule' s disembodied voice gently described Pacific
islands and passionate embraces, rising in intensity

and graphic detail to a point were I was made quite

pointedly aware of the hot crush of bodies perspiring
in the room. Just when the pitch was feverish and
excitement was on the verge of embarrassment he
backed off into a softer and more metaphoric
poeticism: perfect timing. The performance ended
with the slide projector turned off and Pule hanging
his baptismal suit, its label reading 'Young Sir Made
in New Zealand', on the wall. A quite beautiful
artifact of Mormonism in the Pacific Islands, a very
poignant reminder of religious and colonial interests
united in the training of the young Pacific body, with
an easy segue into Beuy's felt suit to finish.
The other highlight of the opening was the
contribution of Peter Madden. This charmingly
eccentric artist spent the evening carrying around a
flash chilli bin, from which he distributed ice
sculptures in the shape of curled coat hooks, the old
types with a larger and smaller hook. These were
lovely in themselves, but as a gift they contributed
much towards focusing thoughts to the body. People
were forced to confront a physical strangeness as the
ice melted in your hands. How to deal with drips on
the floor, whether to suck the inviting knob on the
end, and what you did with it once the fun wore off
were questions made intriguing by being played out
in front of everyone else. Madden gleefully stirred the
pot by encouraging mayhem and mess, in the process
providing the means for a joyful transgression of the
disciplined gallery space. I wish I'd seen his previous
cup and saucer ice sculptures with hot coffee poured
in! Beautiful chaos, this guy is brilliant!
Upon a more sober return to the gallery different
things stood out. The two small Louise Bourgeois
drawings were delightful, and added an 'international
hip' feel to the show. Hips were also very much in
play with Christopher Braddock's Midmost, a
muscular piece in fleshy pink. I must say it is
refreshing to see an art work that looks you straight in
the groin. And it seemed to speak to both genders
judging by the vigorous hip thrust I saw one young
woman giving it. On a more material level Esther
Leigh's elegant Lock used human hair to apply a fine
floating line to lacquer, producing sperm- like shapes,
and working with the show's title literally and
metaphorically. In a different way Monique
Redmond's work The Magician's Nephew also ran this
double play. My immediate and strong reaction was
to kneel on the low cushioned sculpture, and in fact
the strength of the urge both struck me and
highlighted the learnt prohibition to doing so. I
thought it most appropriate that a work should insert
itself into the fabric of regulations that control us in
the gallery and make up the viewing body, in such a
subtle but disruptive way.
Peter Madden's sculptural contributions to the
exhibition were intriguing and again whimsically
beautiful. In Site was an installation with a distinct
blue inflection. A bell jar containing blue plaster
kisses their lips pursed, puckered and fleshy, sexy
surreal fruit to devour, sat upon an old wooden unit

(opposite) JOHN PUHIATAU PULE Does This Suit You? 1995

Suit, fine mat & pate
(below) Fleshly Worn , installation at the ASA Gallery showing
works by (left to right) Robert Jahnke, Christopher Braddock, Lucy
Harvey, Esther Leigh & (foreground) Monique Redmond

with a fold-down door to the bottom shelf. This door

was open and revealed on its inside the surface of the
cavity covered in underwater photos: deep-sea diving
and something of a shark situation. The fresh
simplicity of the statement, to open the bottom
drawer and immediately swim in the deep blue
yonder, was irresistible. Madden's work combines a
lightness of touch with a radicality of gesture which is
breathtaking in its assuredness, as it is in its daring.
As with the symposium, the exhibition Fleshly
Worn was exciting, fun and most energetic. They most
certainly lived up to Spinoza' s ethical imperative for
all bodies to attain active affection and the joyful
knowledge they contain. I came.

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