Carolee Schneeman; up to and including her limits (1973/77)

 

 

 

The drawing accumulations which occur during my suspension on the rope are called automatic writing or trance markings. For non-specified durations I turn myself into a randomized drawing machine. The situation seems personal—being nude, my voice on the tapes, my image in the film—but while the figure on the ropes is actual it becomes less “real” than the woman of the film. There is no idea of “performance” whatsoever; while working on the rope I may not know if there are any spectators or none. The movements and gestures which produce the strokes are controlled by the torsion of my body wound in the rope. My only thought is to be an extension of the rope itself. Until discomfort or loss of concentration occurs I let my entire body function as a pencil.

 

https://archive.thekitchen.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Catalog_Schneemann_Up-To-and-Including-Her-Limits.pdf