Chora, Jouissance and Chaos: A Material and Conceptual Re-thinking of the Phenomenology of Affect

Genine Larin Honours Exegesis October 15, 2012

Chora, Jouissance and Chaos: A Material and Conceptual Re-thinking of the Phenomenology of

Affect

Genine Marie Larin

N7123957

This exegesis is submitted in partial fulfillment of therequirements of the degree Bachelor of Fine Arts (Visual Arts)

with Honours

Creative Industries FacultyQueensland University of Technology

i


Keywords

Visual Art, Practice-led research, Action Research, Material

Thinking, Chora, Jouissance, Chaos, phenomenology, semiotic,

affect, melancholia, abjection, love, yearning, repulsion,

connection, resisting differentiation, potentiality, the feminine

domestic, Elizabeth Grosz, Julia Kristeva, Louise Bourgeois,

Pipilotti Rist, Matthew Barney.

ii


Abstract

In this practice-led research project, Chora, Jouissance and

Chaos, discrete yet overlapping explorations of phenomenological

spaces are proposed as alternatives to the linearity of the

patriarchal binary through object- and video-based artwork. These

dimensional relations are formed by the aggregation of embodied,

conceptual and material intensities which work together in a

process that leads to the transformation of one set of

circumstances (the conceptual and phenomenological associations)

to another (the creative outputs) like a chemical reaction. These

intuitive actions and interactions are examined in relation to

Kristeva’s notion of the semiotic and of the notions affect found

within her formulation of the Chora. By triangulating the

positions of melancholia, abjection and love this studio-based

project seeks to navigate phenomenological feelings, sensations

and emotions via speculative compositions that combine pattern and

viscerality.

iii


Contents

i. Titleii. Keywordsiii. Abstractiv. Contents Pagev. Acknowledgementsvi. Statement of Originality

iv

Genine Larin Honours Exegesis October 15, 2012Introduction 1

Methodology 2

Contextual Review 4

Chora 5

Jouissance 6

Chaos 10

Reflection 14

Conclusion 21

Image Credits 23

References 24

Appendices 27

Acknowledgements

v

Genine Larin Honours Exegesis October 15, 2012I would like to thank the following people for their encouragementand support:

Mark Webb, Danielle Clej, Charles Robb, Daniel Mafe and MikeRiddle.

A special thanks to my Honours cohort who have shared thisjourney:

Nicole Beaumont, Annie Boman, Benjamin Crowley, Sarah Clark,Marnie Edmiston, Tamsin Edwards-Francis, Drew Flaherty, LeeshaRamsay, Jake Sun, Natalie Symonds.

vi


Statement of Originality

The work contained in this thesis has not been previously submitted to meet requirements for an award at this or any other higher education institution. To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made.

___________________________________ ____________________Signed: Date

___________________________________Name:

vii


viii

Genine Larin Honours Exegesis October 15, 2012Introduction

My Honours project is a Visual Arts practice-led project comprised

of a 66% practice component, which includes the body of work I

have undertaken throughout this year, and a 33% exegetical

component. The practical outcomes will be shown as part of the

Visual Arts Honours group exhibition that will be held in the

Block in the QUT Creative Industries Precinct opening on November

7, 2012.

Through video and sculptural works my project explores the

phenomenology of affect informed by notions of Chora, Jouissance

and Chaos. The search for the feeling of unity in a nurturing

womb-like space like the Chora is the aspiration for the work.

Chora is an ambiguous space that is associated with the maternal

because of its association with birth, infancy and breastfeeding.

In this space – here conceived as both a place and psychological

zone - there is a longing and attraction toward a sense of

wholeness and completeness associated with Kristeva’s melancholia

(Kristeva 1980, 133). In essence, I am seeking to find a form of

Chora in my relationship to my practice, which is a microcosm to

my relationship to the world.

Despite these aspirations towards a sense of dissolution of self

in the studio I find that there is also a process of

differentiation emerging from within this Chora. Initially there

is a feeling of oneness in the making process, a sense of unity

between my self and my work but as it proceeds, the working

process yields a profound sense of interconnection with others.

The dialogues between self and other in this shared space,

1

Genine Larin Honours Exegesis October 15, 2012produced in and by the work itself facilitate an interconnection,

a unity in our similarities. Disruption also arises as

unquestioned beliefs are challenged by differences in opinion

formed from various individual experiences and views of the world.

I become abruptly aware that my way is not the only way.

Similarly, Jouissance, associated with Kristeva’s abjection, is

the process of expulsion from the Chora; a transition where a

gravitational yearning for the unity of the Chora and a resistance

to change competes with repulsion in the fear of the unknown ‘I’

(Barrett 2011, 70). The studio is a place for examining these

tensions between attraction and repulsion. This process of

reflection in the studio has revealed that I am drawn to certain

ideas, forms, textures and colours as opposed to others and these

seemingly arbitrary choices can be located in my personal values

and challenged. The discomfort within Jouissance compels me to

chart my location in relation to others views.

The distance provided by the expulsion of abjection locates me in

larger panoramic space where multiple views can be examined. I

align this expansive and inclusive space with Chaos and with

Kristeva’s positive affect of love. I dissolve my self in a

‘vertigo of identity’ using visual and material analogies and

metaphors to understand other perspectives (Barrett 2011, 82). In

the chaotic multiplicity of possibilities to select from within

the studio space I am joyfully connecting with the ‘other’ by

analogy and metaphor (Barrett 2011, 82).

A key term in the process of relating these phenomenological ideas

is Julia Kristeva’s definition of the Semiotic, which for me in my

2

Genine Larin Honours Exegesis October 15, 2012practice is finding something out there (words, symbols, materials,

textures, colours, processes, sounds, spaces) that stimulates the

same mixture of harmony and discordance that I am feeling in here

(Kristeva 1980, 6-7). I am using my practice to access this ‘pre-

signifying’ state (Kristeva 1980, 6-7). This orients the

performative dimension of my studio practice, in which the doing of

the work is itself a reaching out to articulate need and re-

establish the wholeness of Chora in the inter-connection of Chaos.

For me, the making of artwork is a way of mediating between the

competing impulses of introspection and expression. It is the

process of reconciling these opposing motives that underpins the

philosophy of my studio process.

Methodology

Elizabeth Grosz describes art as a ‘productive explosion resulting

from sensations, affects or intensities created by the

provocations posed by forces of the earth with the forces of

living bodies’ (2008, 15). The material analogies and metaphors

within my practice are the result of this kind of embodied

productive explosion. My bodily engagement consists of two main

aspects, which are each in their own way performative. As McEvilley

notes performance in art involves the artist’s own body and occurs

in the real space where bodies meet and act upon one another hence

it is essentially ethical and social (2005, 217).

The first is driven by inexpressible restlessness that can be

temporarily discharged by the making process – a corporeal

activation that brings my awareness back into my physical body

resulting in a re-connection between my phenomenological and3

Genine Larin Honours Exegesis October 15, 2012material being. The second is a contemplative making where I

reflect on phenomenological experiences along with theoretical

ideas while using processes like crochet, felting and basketry and

materials like latex and wool. The textures, colours and

structures stimulate my senses in creating and re-creating a

feedback loop within me allowing me to translate feelings and

ideas into material objects that resonate with and extend the

original phenomenological experience. The resulting objects and

videos reproduce the original affects while the contemplation of

the work allows me to unpack their origins. The dynamic that

occurs between the material, conceptual and phenomenological

elements is the catalysis that drives my art practice.

In both modes of engagement - corporeal activity and reflective

making - there is cyclic physical activation of my body and of

materials along with a simultaneous contemplative reflection.

This cyclical interaction of corporeal, material and critical

modes of reflection reflects the formulation of practice-led

research proposed by Paul Carter in his book Material Thinking (Carter

2004) and the research method Action Research (Kemmis and Wilkinson

1998). Carter describes Material Thinking as a process where the

making of the work is inseparable from what is produced and where

discrete elements, both conceptual and material, are “dismembered

and re-membered” in a way that is new each time (Carter 2004, 11).

The dynamic nature of pulling things apart and putting things

together within the studio practice expresses this interconnection

between form and process in my work. The planning, acting and observing

and reflecting stages in the Action Research Spiral overlap and the

process is fluid, open and responsive (Kemmis and Wilkinson 1998,

4

Genine Larin Honours Exegesis October 15, 201221). The recursive nature of the dialogues between action and

reflection in Action Research “investigates reality in order to

change it and changes reality in order to investigate it” (Kemmis

and Wilkinson 1998, 24).

It is within the space of the practice that I have realized that

my aesthetic choices, based on gut feelings of attraction and

repulsion, have ethical implications. The value of having an art

practice is that it is a ‘safe’ space of contemplation, analysis

and action. Rather than doing these things in my real life within

my personal and professional relationships where it can be

destructive, my art practice is a sanctuary in which I can examine

ideas and express feelings without being censored or oppressed by

external, patriarchal ideologies. As a result, there is a strong

feminist temperament to my work and working methods especially

informed by Kristeva’s psychoanalytic feminism.

I am taking the internal, in-between, and external aspects of my

practice and analyzing them in relation to Julia Kristeva’s view

of the semiotic along with her ideas about affect incorporating

melancholia, abjection and love (Kristeva 1980, 6-7). Kristeva’s

theoretical formulation that I am referring to here is actually a

reflection of the actual impulses and qualities or characteristics

of my practice and my attitude toward practice in general. In

other words there is a strong correspondence between the

theoretical and the practical. These topics will be explored in

greater depth below.

Contextual Review

5


In my visual art studies, I have found that I resonate most

strongly with contemporary art practices that are experiential,

affective and sensory in nature. In light of this I have come to

consider the ways in which I use processes within my creative

practice to meditate and reflect upon phenomenological sensations.

The resulting work, in turn, acts as a feedback loop to re-

stimulate, re-produce and re-generate these sensations within me

as well as evoking similar encounters for the viewer. The

sensations also produce cognitive by-products that provide new

ideas towards future works. Julia Kristeva’s view of the semiotic

disposition of language has been useful in framing this process

because meanings related to embodied experience disrupt and

multiply existing modes of communication (Barrett 2011, 70). The

dynamic of attraction and repulsion contained within Kristeva’s

affect incorporating melancholia, abjection and love have informed my

current understanding of the dialogues that occur within the body

of the artist and the viewer, as sensations and affects, in

response to the formal and ephemeral elements of the work

(Kristeva 1980, 6-7).

I am constructing a dimensional theory-building mental space in

which to situate ideas signified by particular materials,

processes, structures, textures, colours, sounds, spaces, and

concepts. Eva Hesse, Louise Bourgeois and Kiki Smith, whose

sculptural works produce discordant and often visceral affects,

have been profoundly influential on the development of my work

over the past few years. But for the purposes of this paper I

will be focusing primarily on the work of Bourgeois along with

6

Genine Larin Honours Exegesis October 15, 2012filmic aspects of works by Pipilotti Rist and Matthew Barney as

they explore a broader range of affects from repulsion to joy.

Both Barney and Rist construct conceptual and material systems

within which these phenomenological affective experiences, both

attractive and repulsive, can be considered. In my practice I

refer to three-dimensional spaces that enact overlapping

geometries of interconnection which in turn assist me in re-

presenting phenomenological perceptions which can be distilled

into the following three categories: Chora, Jouissance and Chaos.

Chora

The Chora assumes a central role in Kristeva’s psychoanalytical

model of the formation of self. In the Chora - the originating

flux from which the self emerges - the distinction between self

and other has not developed, and love of self is felt to be

continuous with the mother (Barrett 2011, 67). Kristeva refers to

the Chora as the semiotic in terms of a presignifying state which is

a space of ambiguity, dissolution and fragmentation that exists

prior to the Freudian mirror stage (1980, 133). Within the unified

space of Chora there is a feeling of oneness or wholeness. Within

Kristeva’s psychoanalytical system, the Chora thus represents a

state of maternal fluidity that precedes the emergence of language

and the subject. It is this maternal space of peace and comfort

that I feel I am always gravitating towards in my practice and

seeking to access through the making process.

7


Fig 1. Lucio Fontana : Concetto spaziale (Spatial Concept), 1967

Notions of Chora provide a way of interpreting a range of postwar

artworks in which artists have sought to represent the ineffable.

For example, the slashes and holes in Lucio Fontana’s Spatial Concepts

(Figure 1) can be said to provide access to the semiotic space and a

reflection back to the space of the Chora. Near the end of his

life, Fontana told an interviewer, “My discovery was the hole and

that’s it. I am happy to go to my grave after such a discovery.”

The famous hole and cut were a way of making the viewer look

beyond the physical fact of the painting, to what Fontana called

‘a free space’ (Whitfield 1999, 14). The space created by the hole

or the slash stands for the idea of a space without physical

boundaries and the spaces created make reference to the vastness

of the universe as well as the microcosm of inner space within the

body. Whitfield writes, “By containing the turmoil of cosmic

terror within an image of fertility Fontana creates a space where

the most distant polarities finally meet and close together”

(1999, 48). Fontana’s vulvic ruptures can be thought of as a

8

Genine Larin Honours Exegesis October 15, 2012profound embodiment of the maternal void that shapes Kristeva’s

conception of Chora.

During childhood I experienced fevers that provided a sensory

awareness of infinity and vastness. These experiences form the

context for how I understand the profound phenomenological space

of Chora. In my altered state, every throb of my heart felt as if

I were expanding; growing larger and larger, and alternatively

diminishing smaller and smaller. Suspended in the infinite

expanse of space I could not determine my own size because there

was nothing to compare myself to. The ‘cosmic’ void of Fontana’s

work can be thought of as an expression of the Chora – a pre-

existing state of pure potential. The process of emerging from

the Chora disrupts the feeling of continuity, initiating the first

experiences of differentiation (Barrett 2011, 67). The

phenomenology of this differentiation is discussed in the

following section.

Jouissance

Jouissance can be summarised as the simultaneous experience of

pleasure and pain. The common meaning implies sexual pleasure

however in Lacanian psychoanalytical thought the term is an

“ecstatic experience of a sudden and violent interruption of

consciousness” (Tsolas 2005, 19). Kristeva links Jouissance to the

dynamic within the space of the Chora at the threshold between the

awareness of self and other (Grosz 1989, 77). It is associated

with Kristeva’s notion of affect, which contains the dynamic between

melancholia and abjection (Barrett 2011, 63-75). In the initial stages

of differentiation the subject “brushes up against the unnamable

9

Genine Larin Honours Exegesis October 15, 2012thing” resulting in a disruption that comes “suddenly, violently

and painfully creating discomfort, unease and dizziness” (Tsolas

2005, 20) causing misunderstanding of what constitutes what is

inside and what is outside the body (Grosz 1989, 71). Yearning for

the maternal from this pre-verbal semiotic state is the feeling of

melancholia, desire or attraction (Kristeva 1980, 133). Along

with this is the simultaneous realization that there is an other

(Kristeva 1980, 133). Children’s fear of monsters and people’s

fears of aliens are responses to the uncanny and are, according to

Kristeva, an archaic response to the other experienced as a feeling

of repulsion called abjection (Barrett 2011, 70). This turbulent

‘vortex of summons and repulsion’ is how we form our identities in

the boundaries we delineate between our selves and others (Barrett

2011, 70). I am interested in this dynamic between attraction

and repulsion because this guides aesthetic judgment and

ultimately values and ethics. We make choices based on what we

are attracted to and repelled by. The space of Jouissance is a

middle ground of uncertainty, restlessness, anxiety and fear not

really understanding what the self or the other is.

The sense of abjection is implicated in artistic production as the

struggle to overcome this condition by locating this unknown thing

symbolically (Barrett 2011, 71). The process of attraction and

repulsion in abjection is necessary for the performative

production of language to occur and for any object of desire to

emerge (Barrett 2011, 72). Artistic production infuses the

symbolic with affect allowing the semiotic maternal language to

generate new meaning (Barrett 2011, 75).

10


Fig 2. Louise Bourgeois : Arch of Hysteria, 1993

Louise Bourgeois’ Arch of Hysteria (Figure 2) is in the form of a

headless male suspended in a tense back-bending pose from the

pelvis within the exhibition space. The cast bronze sculpture has

a highly polished silver patina whose sleek surface reveals the

muscular tension and the skeletal structure of protruding hips and

an expanded rib cage beneath the skin’s surface in the physical

act of maintaining this extended posture. Showalter (2007, para.

11) describes the public lectures of French neurologist Jean-

Martin Charcot that influenced Bourgeois titling of this work.

Charcot exhibited hysterical patients whose seizures sometimes

included an intense muscular contraction, called the hysterical

arch that resulted in immobility and paralysis of the limbs. In

pointing out the rational, emotional and erotic limits of the male

and the fragility of men Bourgeois intends to subvert the abstract

male whose image is constructed by society (Storr 2003, 23). The

physical strength required to achieve the hysterical pose requires

power however the psychological condition that causes it is one of

vulnerability and is reflexive – the subject having lost control

of their body. The figure appears to be writhing in an imposing

11

Genine Larin Honours Exegesis October 15, 2012claustrophobic space. The hysterical posture in Bourgeois’ Arch of

Hysteria reveals the oppressive restraint of the essential being

beneath the burden of an unessential and constructed role. And yet

there is also a fluidity and sense of transcendence here – a

Jouissance we could say – as this figure is simultaneously

tormented and elegant, a body but also an aperture.

Fig 3. Louise Bourgeois : Filette (Sweeter Version), 1968

Similar tensions can be found in Bourgeois’ sculpture Filette (1968)

(Figure 3), a two-foot high phallus made of plaster covered in

flesh-like latex. Filette, which is French for ‘little girl’, is confusing at first

glance. What initially appears to be phallic, under closer

inspection can be perceived as a morphing hybrid of the physical

structures of gender: the testicles and foreskin recalling breasts

and vulva respectively. Bourgeois merges the Jouissance of female

ripeness with male urgency resulting in an androgynous

metamorphosis of supply and demand.

12

Genine Larin Honours Exegesis October 15, 2012Pipilotti Rist explores a turbulent boundary space between self

and other that is connected to the feminine and the maternal. Her

work multiplies meanings in the juxtaposition of the symbolic

visual references she makes in her video work allowing for the

generation of new meanings to emerge from the semiotic space.

Fig 4. Pipilotti Rist : Ever Is Over All, 1997

Rist proposes a feminine identity that is changeable and changing

by constructing empowered identities. In Ever is Overall (Figure 4), Rist

utilises a double-vision that breaks through the barriers of

gender differentiation. The disorienting guise of the carnivalesque

created by the manipulation of soundtrack and video projection

speed allows for a lapse of rationality and order providing a

freedom from traditional symbolic systems (Mangini 2001, 2-5).

Rist takes advantage of this freedom to transgress the traditional

female gender role in the patriarchal system by confusing feminine

and masculine symbols (Mangini 2001, 2-5). As the viewer

readjusts to the manipulation he becomes implicated and included

in the transgression (Mangini 2001, 5). As a participant, the

viewer is both object and subject, actor and spectator, maker and

interpreter (Mangini 2001, 5; Jones 1999, 1). 13


Firstly, the flower, a traditional symbol for the female, when

used by the woman to shatter the windscreens of parked cars

becomes a phallic symbol of power. By fusing the vaginal and

phallic iconography she is referring to the ambivalent model

actually held by flowers in nature as organisms that contain both

male and female reproductive parts (Mangini 2001, 4). Secondly, a

woman wearing red lipstick wears the police uniform, which

signifies the patriarchal system and the confines of its social

constructs on women. After approaching the woman smashing

windscreens, she smiles, tips her hat and walks on. The

transgression is not suppressed but acknowledged and sanctioned by

authority (Mangini 2001, 7). Thirdly, the medium of video itself

suggests real-time surveillance, or panoptic scan, which is also

suggested by the police officer whose smile acknowledges the

transgression without punishing the transgressor. Together, these

elements support an interpretation where the system of patriarchal

control is broken down, deconstructed and ultimately undermined.

Pipilotti Rist’s video work is a search for a female identity

outside of and apart from patriarchal construction. She

penetrates the space that contains of Bourgeois’ hysterical arch

into an expansive space of overwhelming chaotic associations.

Rist’s draws on the traditional association of women with the

irrational and the natural to celebrate a positive hysteria as a

form of resistance from a weak position, falling apart into many

pieces, an ecstasy and a personal exorcism. (Jones 2006, 237).

Rist’s subjects are defining a new kind of power formerly not

associated with the feminine or with the masculine in the binary

14

Genine Larin Honours Exegesis October 15, 2012of the gaze. The synaesthetic terrain that Rist inhabits

references the dissolution of the Chora at the threshold between

self and other in Jouissance where there is no ‘us’ that produces

a ‘them’ out there (Munder 2007, 292). She presents a dizzying

array of symbols segueing our awareness from pain toward pleasure

in Jouissance.

Chaos

The ancient Greeks accepted that chaos precedes order; that order

comes from disorder (Sardar 1998, 4). Chaos Theory, or the

mathematics of nonlinear dynamics, demonstrates a vast world of

connectedness in both the visible and invisible sphere and is a

state of indeterminacy in which all phenomena is interconnected by

complex associations. Chaos makes strong claims about the

universal behaviour of complexity (Gleick 1988). Chaos is aligned

with the Chora in that is experienced as a state of fluid

possibilities. However, the distance from the inherently fluid

and ambiguous Chora, caused by the expulsion of abjection, allows

for a larger perspective in Chaos that includes multiplicity and

structure within a universal space where all is one. (Figure 5).

Fig 5. The Lorenz Attractor

15

Genine Larin Honours Exegesis October 15, 2012I move from fear and overwhelm in Jouissance to an awareness and

acceptance of the limitations in my ability to understand. I can

choose to surrender to the beauty and intelligence within the

space of Chaos. This informs my approach to finding and

manipulating materials within an intuitive practice that can work

across different media and spaces. It is not a matter of one or

two within the Chora and in the patriarchal binary - it is the

feeling of being one amongst this overwhelming multiplicity of

perspectives and materialities. I can choose to focus on different

variations of things combining and re-combining in different ways.

There is pleasure, joy and love in that kind of connection – the

pleasure of Jouissance.

I associate Chaos with Kristeva’s notion of the positive affect of

love where the relation to other is not a threat because we come

to understand the unknowable in metaphor. By transferring an

attribute from one thing to another we are allowed to experience

one thing in terms of another, a fusing of the two (Barrett 2011,

82). In Chaos, phenomenological feelings emerge from the semiotic

space. The metaphorical dialogues between these feelings with

forms, materials, words, performance, image, video and sound and

are transformed into the symbolic realm like a chemical reaction.

Art is the movement from chaos to order and conversely a movement

from order to chaos. It acts as a bridge between the states of

Chora and the construction of subjectivity found within the

metaphorical associations of Chaos. Elisabeth Grosz calls this

deterritorialisation which she describes as a ‘cutting through

territories, breaking up systems of enclosure and performance,

16

Genine Larin Honours Exegesis October 15, 2012traversing territory in order to retouch chaos, enabling something

mad, asystematic, something of the chaotic outside to reassert and

restore itself in and through the body, in works and events that

impact the body’ (2008, 22).

Chaos can be found in the overlapping spirals of action and

reflection analogous to the looping structures of Chaos attractor

pattern (Figure 5), and are materially and conceptually infused

throughout the creative practice of Matthew Barney.

Fig 6. Matthew Barney : The Cremaster Cycle, 2003

The Cremaster Cycle (Figure 6) is a chaotic system that is full of

repeating patterns that reflect the early days of the human embryo

in the Chora. These patterns are symbols of the journey of the

gonads, which determine the sex of the embryo as dictated by the

cremaster muscle which raises and lowers the gonads - up to become17

Genine Larin Honours Exegesis October 15, 2012ovaries and down to become testicles. The characters throughout

the films move up and down in an echo of the journey of the

gonads. For example, Barney’s experience as a player on the field

within the football stadium has also endured as a metaphor in his

work. He refers to the goal post and two Goodyear blimps as

symbols of the human reproductive system in its undescended state

(Lewis 2003).

The materials, forms and actions that comprise Barney’s artwork

are inspired by his autobiographical reflection (Barney 2002, 15).

However, these material and performative references also act as

metaphors and symbols that are loaded with layers of meaning.

Jung defines the unconscious meaning of the symbol in dreams as a

term, name or picture that is familiar in daily life that

possesses specific connotations in addition to its conventional

and obvious meaning (Jung 1964, 20). This strange and mysterious

type of knowing that implies a vague or hidden meaning is palpable

throughout the viewing of Barney’s films, which are like the

uncanny and surreal dreams particularly as experienced during a

fever. They are full of multi-layered sensory experiences that

engender contradictions and indeterminacies, which heighten the

imaginary and affective engagement of the viewer (Barrett 2011,

84). Kristeva describes love as reciprocal to melancholia and the

repetition of analogies found throughout the Cremaster Cycle chart

a trajectory between melancholia and love (Barrett 2011, 82-84).

According to Kristeva love and the art of love are similar in that

both involve a relation to the other not as a threat but as a system

that leads to growth renewal and change (Barrett 2011, 83).

18

Genine Larin Honours Exegesis October 15, 2012To the evolution of human biology Barney adds the theme of human

creativity. His characters are always making art, building,

singing and dancing and it all adds up to a vision of life itself.

The Apprentice who scales the elevator shaft in the Chrysler

Building in Cremaster 3, the plunge of the Loughton Candidate who

tap dances his way through a slowly eroding floor in Cremaster 4,

the Diva scaling and falling from the proscenium arch the

Magician’s leap into the waters of the Danube, the upward soaring

of pigeons trailing ribbons in Cremaster 5 (Barney 2002, 116-459).

These characters all mirror this striving upward and resistance to

the downward pull. In linking embryos and artistry Barney’s films

and sculptures are symbols of things that are in the process of

becoming (Lewis 2003). In an interview, Matthew Barney describes

this as ‘getting back to that place where things aren’t complete,

where ideas are fertile and forms aren’t yet defined’ (Lewis

2003). Employing symbols, Barney makes the bizarre seem logical.

His world is where biology, creativity and sexuality are

interchangeable with everything including musicology and geography

(Lewis 2003). Starting with his experience as a sportsman Barney

observed a unity to all things. Barney’s idea is that everything

in the world - our landscape, our buildings, our art, our myths

and our sport are extensions of the human body (Lewis 2003).

Rather than offer preconceived notions of right or wrong within a

binary system, Barney seems to be asking questions and proposing a

series options - none of which are yet resolved. Within the

cycle, Barney proposes that one state is always containing and

completing its opposite; the male state of descension cannot be

thought of separately from its female counterpart and it is in

this tension of opposites that the Jouissance of the work lies

19

Genine Larin Honours Exegesis October 15, 2012(Barney 2002, 72). The true goal of the system is to find a way

to look beyond itself and to reach the other side of

consciousness, form or definition (Barney 2002, 73). The

Cremaster Cycle defers any definitive conclusion. And for Barney,

“It keeps producing stories, a way of thinking about form and

scale and keeps generating work” (Lewis 2003). Barney’s work

exemplifies the tensions between order and chaos that underpins a

vast spectrum of contemporary art practice. Barney draws

connections between the contingencies of his own background and

the forms and structures of classical mythology to produce an

impression of chaotic subjectivity in which the self is

continually in a state of renegotiating its own points of

reference, its own identity.

Reflection

I will now consider how the cyclic and simultaneous

phenomenological spaces of Chora, Jouissance and Chaos are

expressed within my practice and manifested throughout my work.

There are repeated elements that signify aspects of these spaces.

For example incorporating latex as well as my own body in the work

represents the material body and its phenomenology. Wool

symbolises potentiality and references the feminine domestic space

while the process of crochet reflects on the maternal aspect of

Chora as well as the complexity of Chaos in the literal

fabrication of a woven matrix.

20


Figure 7 The video projection Pool (Figure 7) is a framing of my regular 2000-

meter swim. The entirety of this performative video takes place

underwater transforming the pool lane into an amniotic space.

This, along with the continuous circular movement and the neonatal

water sounds, references the Chora space. The tucked position of

my body in the tumble-turn mirrors the fetal position while the

water caresses and nurtures me. The activity of swimming allows me

to shift from an over-stimulated anxiety or stagnant and

paralyzing depression back into my physical body and my senses.

My wrestle against the resistance of the water mimics my

hysterical wrestle to reconcile unity and differentiation. The

pain from the effort of exertion produces endorphins that put me

into a more relaxed state resulting in a meditative mindfulness

that is open to the Jouissance within Chaos. I dip in and out of

conscious awareness as I am swimming and thinking. The vigorous

activity oxygenates my brain creating a burst of new thoughts and

ideas during and after the swim. The video is also a visual

analogy between my making processes and lap swimming (Figure 8). The

repetitive looping of laps and tumble turns enacted with my body

21

Genine Larin Honours Exegesis October 15, 2012in the pool mirror the activity of coiling and wrapping. The

repetitive structure of my swimming strokes reflects the stitching

of crochet. I follow a black line in the pool and I follow line of

wool being crocheted or coiled into form. I tunnel with an

inspection camera through my created forms as I tunnel through the

water in the pool. These repetitive oscillations of twin impulses

are simultaneously directional and static. They provide a

meditative quality in my making process in which the semiotic can

be allowed to emerge from the Chora.

Figure 8

22


Figure 9

I seek to represent the feeling of the unity and infinity found

within both Chora and Chaos in Pudenda / Pod (Figure 9). The tensions

within the process of ‘becoming’ that underpin Chora are

represented by the undifferentiation found in the ball of wool

while the imminent process of differentiation occurring in the

crocheted form ultimately results in the interconnection of Chaos.

I am connecting maternal and botanical fertility by highlighting

the similarity between the form of the seedpod with the female

external genitalia. The fertility and potential maternity of

Chora is a microcosm of Chaos as a fluid matrix. This is referenced

by the crocheted version of the potentially infinitely expanding

hyperbolic plane created by increasing crochet stitches at a

regular interval. The result is an exponential growth at the edge

23

Genine Larin Honours Exegesis October 15, 2012of the two-dimensional plane of fabric causing it to curve into

three-dimensional space (Figure 10). This eruption into space is an

expression almost of its own accord can be thought of as allusive

to the Chora and the way it presses itself upon language and

subjectivity. These forms also evoke notions of cloud or drapery

further extending the idea of expressing the ineffable similar to

imagery used for religious metaphors for the divine or

unrepresentable.

Figure 10

Holistic Mutation VII (Figure 11) is a womb or Chora space composed of

latex and crochet. This space branches into three birth canals,

from which two crowning infant heads are emerging. This moment is

the threshold between Chora and Jouissance; between

undifferentiation and differentiation. This in-between space of

labour and birth is the ultimate expression of Jouissance as

pleasure and pain are collapsed into one all-encompassing

experience that holds the unity and potentiality of Chora along

with complexity and multiplicity in Chaos.

24


Figure 11

Figure 12

Moving from interior to exterior, the heart-like form in Heart

Projection, (Figure 12) initially crafted in crochet without a pattern,

is structured with the mathematical intelligence of Chaos inherent

in the process of crochet while referencing the intuitive in its

pattern-less construction. The feminine domestic is initially

present in the material of wool. Placing warm and tactile wool

into earthy, porcelain clay slip and kiln firing it is a process

that transforms the warm and soft heart into a cold, fragile and

25

Genine Larin Honours Exegesis October 15, 2012rigid object. This object becomes the receiving surface for a

projected video of open-heart surgery, the embodiment of intellect

severed from emotion, which is a characteristic of the ‘genius of

patriarchy’ (Morgan 1989, 51). The hardened yet fragile surface of

the heart protects its own melancholic yearning while its rigidity

alludes to a repulsion from being associated in a binary context

of the patriarchal other. These elements collectively reference

the oppressive restraint of the essential being beneath the burden

of an unessential and constructed role.

Together the works Panoptic Endoscopic and Head Full (Figure 13) attempt

to locate the material origins of phenomenological anomaly within

the material body. On the left is a multi-screened panoptic view

of projected endoscopic scans tunneling simultaneously throughout

a selection of bodily conduits composed of tubular coils wrapped

in red wool or coated in skin-like latex. The projection at the

right is progressing through the structures of the head, from

front to back and side to side, via sectional anatomy where the

interior and exterior collapse together in an endless and

fruitless search for material abnormality. These works consider

how the violence of an explicit material probing can map the

locations of affective experiences but cannot access the

instinctive, intuitive or tacit knowledge stored within these

bodily structures.

26


Figure 13

The looping and layering that are repeated in attractor patterns,

the Cremaster Cycle and in Action Research have informed my own

conception of Chaos. In my recent work (Figure 14) I am examining

the structure of an attractor pattern of my own invention. It is

composed of a multitude of particular individual crochet stitches

aligned along a looping cotton cord. The particular associations

between the stitches, which alternatively interconnect or remain

discrete, synthesize with the cord to create the flowing structure

of the resulting figure-8 pattern. The soft and pliable object

has been infused with blood-red wax lending it temporary solidity,

as any heat applied will return this form to a state of

potentiality by allowing it to again become pliable and able to be

re-worked into a different shape. The looping butterfly attractor

pattern locates it in the realm of Chaos as well as in the context

of the visualisation of big data (Figure 15). There is a

correspondence between the looping interconnected form of my work

27

Genine Larin Honours Exegesis October 15, 2012and the way this exemplifies my strategy of making visible. It is

a patterning of the complex operations of Chora, Jouissance and

Chaos.

Figure 14

28


Figure 15 Jer Thorp : Visualisation of the UK national DNA database

Conclusion

29

http://neilperkin.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341d4dc653ef011571c29588970b-popup

Genine Larin Honours Exegesis October 15, 2012In my Honours project I have been exploring ways of representing

highly fluid and evasive phenomenological states. In this process

Kristeva’s theories of Chora and Jouissance have been highly

instrumental as critical tools, as they propose alternatives to

the rigid ontologies of Cartesian binaries. These works all

stimulate affective responses within me that are composed of some

composite mixture of yearning and repulsion that mirror the

pleasure and pain of Jouissance. Artistic output in Chaos allows

me to articulate the inexpressible longing for unity and

metaphorically occupy a space of inter-connection.

In nature and mathematics there is variation and fluidity in

structure. One way of talking about Chaos then is as being the

ultimate state of fluidity where all parts are completely mobile

and disjointed from one another. What I am recognizing is that to

think about things as being either structured or chaotic is to

misunderstand the way in which structures can become fluid. It is

not a matter of choosing one or the other but rather how do I take

the inherent chaos within the phenomena of the practice and give

them some form of order that evokes semiotic meaning and acquires

a poetic dimension. In relation to these insights, Chora and

Jouissance offer ways of understanding the complex impulses and

reactions that shape my approach to art-making. Throughout the

course of this project I have become aware of the usefulness of

Kristeva’s psychoanalytical theory to the contemporary art studio

as both an analytical and processual tool. In so doing Chora and

Jouissance emerge as modes of interacting with materials as well

as lenses with which to analyse the forms that are produced.

There is simultaneity and overlapping of elements drawn from the

30

Genine Larin Honours Exegesis October 15, 2012process of being expelled from the unity of the Chora into the

disorienting loss of equilibrium in Jouissance and finding

infinite possibilities for re-location in a Chaotic metaphorical

triangulation from the locations of melancholia, abjection and

love. In this way I am fluidly structuring my relationship to

practice.

31


Image Credits

1. Genine Marie Larin – Chaos I, installation view (2012).

2. Fontana, Lucio. 1967. “Concetto spaziale (Spatial Concept)”. Reproduced in Sarah Whitfield. 1999. Lucio Fontana, 83. Berkley : University of California Press.

3. Louise Bourgeois- Arch of Hysteria, installation view (1993) viewed August 19, 2012. http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/features/lowery/louise-bourgeois6-15-10_detail.asp?picnum=26

4. Louise Bourgeois- Filette (Sweeter Version), installation view (1968) viewed October 13, 2012. http://www.studiomatters.com/art/louise-bourgeois-dead-at-98

5. Pipilotti Rist- Ever is Over All, installation view (1997) viewed August 22, 2012. http://www.hauserwirth.com/artists/25/pipilotti-rist/images-clips/78/

6. Ryoichi Mizuno- The Lorenz Attractor, (2008) viewed September 5, 2012. http://www.mizuno.org/c/la/img/lorenz_web.jpg

7. Matthew Barney- The Cremaster Cycle, installation view (2003) viewed August 29, 2012. http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/about/guggenheim-images/show-full/piece/?search=New%20York&page=4&f=Architecture&cr=28

8. Genine Marie Larin- Pool, installation view (2011).

32

http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/about/guggenheim-images/show-full/piece/?search=New%20York&page=4&f=Architecture&cr=28

http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/about/guggenheim-images/show-full/piece/?search=New%20York&page=4&f=Architecture&cr=28

http://www.mizuno.org/c/la/img/lorenz_web.jpg

http://www.hauserwirth.com/artists/25/pipilotti-rist/images-clips/78/

http://www.hauserwirth.com/artists/25/pipilotti-rist/images-clips/78/

http://www.studiomatters.com/art/louise-bourgeois-dead-at-98

http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/features/lowery/louise-bourgeois6-15-10_detail.asp?picnum=26

http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/features/lowery/louise-bourgeois6-15-10_detail.asp?picnum=26


9. Genine Marie Larin- Birth Canal, installation view (2011).

10. Genine Marie Larin – Pudenda / Pod, installation view (2012).

11. Genine Marie Larin - Holistic Mutation VII, installation view (2011).

12. Genine Marie Larin- Heart Projection, installation view (2012).

13. Genine Marie Larin- Panoptic Endoscopic and Head Full, installation view (2011).

14. Genine Marie Larin- Attractor, installation view (2012).

15. Jer Thorp- Visualisation of the UK national DNA database, (2009) viewed September 22, 2012. http://blog.blprnt.com/blog/blprnt/wired-uk-july-09-visualizing-a-nations-dna

16. Genine Marie Larin- Chaos II, installation view (2012).

References

Arendt, H. 1998. The Human Condition. Chicago : University of ChicagoPress.

Barney, Matthew. 1995. Cremaster 1. Exhibited Brisbane: Gallery of Modern Art. Film (Viewed September 10, 2011).



33

http://blog.blprnt.com/blog/blprnt/wired-uk-july-09-visualizing-a-nations-dna

http://blog.blprnt.com/blog/blprnt/wired-uk-july-09-visualizing-a-nations-dna

Genine Larin Honours Exegesis October 15, 2012Barney, Matthew. 1994. Cremaster 4. Exhibited Brisbane: Gallery of Modern Art. Film (Viewed September 10, 2011).


Barney, M. 1999. Cremaster 2. Minneapolis, Minn. : Walker Art Center.

Barney, M. 2002. Cremaster 3. New York : Guggenheim Museum Publications.

Barney, M. 2002. Matthew Barney : The Cremaster Cycle. New York : Guggenheim

Museum.

Barrett, E. 2011. Kristeva reframed : A Guide for the Arts Student. London : I.B. Tauris & Company, Limited.

Best, S. 2001. What is Affect? Considering the Affective Dimension of Contemporary Installation Art. The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Art 2

(2): 207-225.

Bourgeois, L. 1998. Destruction of the father reconstruction of the father: writings and interviews, 1923-1997. London: Violette Editions.

Butler, J. 1990. Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory. Performing Feminisms : Feminist Critical Theory and Theatre. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP.

Carter, P. 2004, Material thinking: the theory and practice of creative research. Carlton, Vic. : Melbourne University Publishing.

Chernick, Alison. 2009. Matthew Barney : no restraint. Directed and Produced by Alison Chernick. Voyeur Film production. DVD.

Gilman, S.L., Helen King, Roy Porter, G.S.Rousseau, and Elaine Showalter. 1993. Hysteria Beyond Freud. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Gleick, J. 1988. Chaos : making a new science. London : Cardinal

Grosz, E. 2008. Chaos, Territory, Art. Deleuze and the Framing of the Earth. New York : Columbia University Press.

34


Grosz, E.A. 1989, Sexual subversions: three French feminists, Allen & Unwin, Sydney.

Haseman, B. 2005. “Creative Practices.” In Creative Industries: A Reader, edited by John Hartley and Brad Haseman, 158-175. Malden, MA :Blackwell.

Jung, C.G., 1964. Man and His Symbols. London : Aldus Books.

Kemmis, S and Wilkinson, M. 1998. “Participatory Action Research and the Study of Practice.” In Action Research in Practice : Partnership for Social Justice in Education, edited by Bill Atweh, Stephen Kemmis and Patricia Weeks, 21-36. New York : Routledge.

Kristeva, J. 1980. Desire in language : a semiotic approach to Literature and Art. New York : Columbia University Press.

Kristeva, J. 1984. Revolution in Poetic Language. New York : Columbia University Press.

Mangini, E. 2001. "Pipilotti's Pickle: Making meaning from the feminine position." PAJ: a Journal of Performance and Art. (68): 1-9.

McEvilley, T. 2005. The triumph of anti-art : conceptual and performance art in the formation of post-modernism. Kingston, N.Y. : McPherson & Co.

Milner, M. 1981. A life of one’s own / Joanna Field. Los Angeles: J.P.Tarcher; Boston: Distributed by Houghton, Mifflin.

Morgan, R. 1989. The Demon Lover : On the Sexuality of Terrorism. New York :Norton.

Munder, H. 2007. It’s Time for Action (There’s no option) : about feminism. Zurich:Migros Museum fur Gegenwartskunst:JRP Ringier Kunstverlag.

National Gallery of Canada. 2010. Louise Bourgeois: Arch of Hysteria. http://cybermuse.gallery.ca/cybermuse/search/artwork_e.jsp?mkey=100798 (accessed August 26, 2012).

35

Genine Larin Honours Exegesis October 15, 2012New York Association for Analytical Psychology. 2011. Jung Lexicon: A Primer of Terms and Concepts. http://www.nyaap.org/jung-lexicon

accessed August 26, 2012.

Noam Chomsky : The Machine, the ghost and the limits of understanding. 2012. YouTube video, posted April 30, 2012. Accessed August 27, 2012.

Phelan, P., Obrist, H., Bronfen, E. & Rist, P. 2001, Pipilotti Rist, Phaidon, New York.

Pipilotti Rist. 1993. “Blutclip.” YouTube video, posted January 21, 2008. Accessed April 27, 2012. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlq4iyv7Kdc

Pipilotti Rist : Mutaflor. 1996. YouTube video, posted January 7, 2010. Accessed May 15, 2012.

Pipilotti Rist : Pickelporno. 1992. YouTube video, posted January 23, 2008. Accessed September 5, 2012.

Pipilotti Rist : Show a leg. 2001. Dailymotion video, posted March 9, 2007. Accessed May 13, 2012.

Rist, P. 2001. Pipilotti Rist : Show a leg. Glasgow : Tramway.

Ross, Christine. 2006. “The Temporalities of Video: Extendedness Revisitied.” Art Journal 65 (3): 82-99.

Roy, C. and Eales, J. 2010. Masks & mirrors: from autobiographical reflection to unmasking interdisciplinary collaboration, Reflective Practice. 11: 4, 433 — 450.

Sardar, Z. 1998. Introducing Chaos : A Graphic Guide. Malta : Gutenberg Press.

Showalter, Elaine. 2007. Lumps, Bumps, Bulbs, Bubbles, Bulges, Slits, Turds, Coils, Craters, Wrinkles and Holes. http://www.tate.org.uk/tateetc/issue11/lumpsbumps.htm (accessed August 26, 2012).

Storr, Robert. 2003. Louise Bourgeois. London: Phaidon Press.

36

Genine Larin Honours Exegesis October 15, 2012Thompson, S. 2008. The Critically Reflective Practitioner. New York : Macmillan.

Tsolas, V. 2005, Feminine jouissance: The un-bare-able rapture of rupture.

Warr, T. 2000. The artist’s body : themes and motives. London : Phaidon.

Whitfield, S. 1999. Lucio Fontana. Berkeley : University of CaliforniaPress.

Appendices

See attached CD and DVD

37

Chora, Jouissance and Chaos: A Material and Conceptual Re-thinking of the Phenomenology of Affect

Documents

Transcript of Chora, Jouissance and Chaos: A Material and Conceptual Re-thinking of the Phenomenology of Affect