Contract With The Skin: Masochism, Performance Art, and the 1970s - Hardcover

O'Dell, Kathy

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0816628866 ISBN 13: 9780816628865

Publisher: University of Minnesota Press, 1998

Synopsis

Kathy O'Dell argues that the growth of masochistic performance during the 1970s must be seen in the context of society's response to the Vietnam War and contemporaneous changes in theories of contract. She contends that the dynamic that exists between audience and performer during these masochistic acts relates to the tension resulting from ruptures in the social contract. Indeed, as the war in Vietnam waned, so did masochistic performance, only to reemerge in the 1980s in relation to the "war on AIDS" and the censorious "culture wars".

About this title

From the Publisher:

Offers new ways of thinking about performance art.
"In her astute analysis, O’Dell untangles the social, psychological and legal implications of such infamous creative acts as Chris Burden shooting himself, Vito Acconci biting his arm and filling the teeth marks with ink, Gina Payne slitting her lip with a razor blade and Ulay sewing his mouth shut while Marina Abramovic attempted to articulate his thoughts. O’Dell draws on an impressive range of sources to develop her theory of how masochism operates in these artists’ works--and indeed it is her ability to draw connections between the psychological and legal aspects of the contract that enables us to make a conceptual leap beyond the fact of pain." Coco Fusco, Bomb Magazine

"Kathy O'Dell has broken new ground. Contract with the Skin reveals how artists used self lesion to express both the alienation of maternal separation and the masochism of repressive institutional domination . . . O'Dell's book is essential reading for all who seek a deeper understanding of masochistic performance from the seventies to the present." Chrissie Iles, Curator of Film and Video, Whitney Museum of American Art

"O’Dell’s Contract with the Skin convincingly argues that avant-garde performance, despite its ephemeral and sometimes obtuse strategies, can have great social, political, and emotional relevance. This book advances the enterprise of performance studies by blending solid art historical research, cultural and social observation, and critical and psychoanalytic theory into a refined, deeply meaningful narrative about the relationship between performativity, power, and human sexuality." Maurice Berger, Senior Fellow, The Vera List Center for Art and Politics, New School for Social Research

"This is the first detailed study of the heterogeneous, often elusive movements of the 1970s that not only exposes the gender bias of art criticism at that time, but also introduces an entirely new critical apparatus for the assessment of ephemeral art forms. Kathy O'Dell has provided a scholarly, provocative, and important resource for historians of contemporary art." Mary Kelly, Professor and Chair, Department of Art, University of California at Los Angeles

About the Author:

Kathy O'Dell is assistant professor of art history and theory at the University of Maryland Baltimore County.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Minnesota Press
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0816628866
• ISBN 13: 9780816628865
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 144