Abstinence
Vandana
2013
Performance Video
3 Minutes
©Vandana The Artist
Courtesy of the Artist & Stiftung Futur
DESCRIPTION
Part of the rituals of self series, Abstinence displaces one organ’s function onto another — the tongue, ordinarily used for speech, is made to perform an act of painting that indirectly references the hidden rituals of the body’s sexual organs. The work isolates the tongue from its habitual role and forces it into unfamiliar labour, exposing the degree to which each organ operates within a prescribed, ritualistic system. Part of the rituals of self series, the work investigates what happens when an organ is denied its automatic function and made to serve a different one.
I paint with my tongue. The restricted moves while painting with tongue in this performance indicates towards the hidden ritual of genitals indirectly. Tongue is a more frequently used organ of a human body in comparison to genitals in terms of its physical use in general, as it’s used inevitably all the time for speaking. Here this work indicates the function of an organ through another organ in a ritualistic manner.
Vandana 