OUT OF BODY. VCU Scholars Compass. Virginia Commonwealth University. Alessandra Lee Michelle Torres Virginia Commonwealth University

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1 Virginia Commonwealth University VCU Scholars Compass Theses and Dissertations Graduate School 2006 OUT OF BODY Alessandra Lee Michelle Torres Virginia Commonwealth University Follow this and additional works at: Part of the Art and Design Commons The Author Downloaded from This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at VCU Scholars Compass. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of VCU Scholars Compass. For more information, please contact

2 School of the Arts Virginia Commonwealth University This is to certify that thesis prepared by Alessandra Torres entitled OUT OF BODY has been approved by his or her committee as satisfactory completion of the thesis or dissertation requirement for the degree of Master of Fine Arts Elizabeth King, School of the Arts Kendall Buster, School of the Arts Jack Risley, School of the Arts Jack Wax, School of the Arts Amy Hauft, School of the Arts Dr. Richard Toskin, Dean of the School of the Arts Dr. F. Douglas Boudinot, Dean of the School of Graduate Studies May 12, 2006

3 Alessandra Torres 2006 All Rights Reserved

4 OUT OF BODY A Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts at Virginia Commonwealth University. by ALESSANDRA TORRES Bachelor of Fine Arts, Maryland Institute College of Art, 2002 Master of Fine Arts, Virginia Commonwealth University, 2006 Director: ELIZABETH KING PROFESSOR, SCULPTURE DEPARTMENT Virginia Commonwealth University Richmond, Virginia May 2006

5 ii Table of Contents Page List of Figures...iii Abstract... iv OUT OF BODY... 5 Bibliography Vita... 19

6 iii List of Figures Page Figure 1: A-dolls-essence... 7 Figure 2: Possess (pose-us)... 7 Figure 3: Possess (pose-us), detail... 8 Figure 4: Body Language, detail... 8 Figure 5: Dragging... 8 Figure 6: Learning To Walk... 9 Figure 7: Carried Away... 9 Figure 8: From the Portable Winter Series: Snowfall Figure 9: Body Language, detail Figure 10: From The Portable Winter Series: Snowfall, detail Figure 11: Shadow Drawing Figure 12: Amoeba Boob Figure 13: Siren Figure 14: Jointed Steel Figure, work in progress Figure 15: Jointed Paper Figure, work in progress Figure 16: Out of Body, detail... 17

7 Abstract OUT OF BODY By Alessandra Torres, MFA A Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts at Virginia Commonwealth University. Virginia Commonwealth University, 2006 Major Director: Elizabeth King Professor, Sculpture Department This thesis explores the evolution of Alessandra Torres s work, from her early performances and installations, to her latest work with surrogate bodies, as she challenges the relationship between artist and their creation, body and object, and audience and art. Examining the work of artists such as Cindy Sherman, Rebecca Horn and Marina Abramovic, Torres explores the transformative capabilities of interactive sculpture and live performance. Join Ms. Torres as she transforms herself into everything from a paintbrush to a serpent, in her ongoing exploration of the body s ability to adapt and evolve. iv

8 OUT OF BODY Out of Body: Coming from the body to exist as a separate entity in the world, or an experience where one feels separate and estranged from one s own body, able to examine and lead it as the other. I explore art s ability to articulate and transform our dialogue between our body and our mind. The work employs elements of puppetry, dance, and the magic of storytelling and ritual, to challenge the capabilities of the physical body to articulate, embody, and transform our innermost feelings. My performances and interactive sculptures explore and develop the relationship between artist and their creation, between body and object, and audience and art. I have spent my life mystified by my body, obsessed with the idea and appearance of my physical form. I did not resemble others in my homeland, the body type of Puerto Ricans is different from my own; I appeared a foreigner in my own home. Growing up, I developed a kind of chameleon-like ability to adapt and adjust my appearance and behavior to better suit my environment. I would allow my body to lead, mimicking the mannerisms and body language of others in order to fit-in. Growing up in the tropics allowed me enormous physical freedom, I ran around naked until I was eight, able to explore my surroundings to the fullest of my sensations. The bottoms of my white feet were always black. Year round we would swim in our pool, pick bananas and avocados in the yard, and run around catching lizards and tree frogs. From an 5

9 early age I learned to understand my surroundings through direct physical interaction and this has shaped and informed my process of creation. Physical expression came naturally. 6 My body literally pressed itself into my process early on as I departed from painting during my sophomore year as an undergraduate at The Maryland Institute College of Art. I had been consumed with making self-portraits, driven by a need to connect an image with the physical form it represented. But, I became frustrated trying to use only my fingertips to reproduce the shape of my whole body. I chose instead to use my body as the brush, and began to press my painted body against paper. It was not an idea, but an impulse. This has become a reoccurring impulse; in order to fully comprehend something, I have to experience it with my whole body. Initially, sculpture was satisfying because the processes and weight of materials required my whole body to create the work. But my interest has shifted to my physical interaction with the sculptures, and it strives to capture the moment when the body and the object unify. I studied masks and headdresses and took courses in African Art, which explored a unity between object and maker, and encouraged the investigation of the transformative properties of body extensions and costume. This would help lead to the creation of my first performative object.

10 I created a large, heavy plaster mask of a 7 doll that captivated me at the time, and photographed myself wearing it in a dark train tunnel. I realized, as I ran naked into that pitch-black hole in the middle of winter, unable to hear or see because the mask had no Figure 1 openings, that I was willing to do anything in the name of art. I felt confident, that if I committed and sacrificed myself completely to each piece, the reward would be just as great. The resulting photographs of myself as a strange lost woman/child revealed art s ability to expose and embody our innermost emotions and sense of physical identity. The work at this point was functioning much like dream imagery, seeping from my subconscious to reveal my innermost feelings. I served as an open conduit, allowing my body to sculpt and weld my emotions and feelings for all to explore. My early installations were essentially interactive dreams. The viewer was invited to wander through my imaginary world, but their role within it was not clear. Figure 2

11 8 Figure 3 Figure 4 Analysis of the formal elements of early installations caused my attention to shift from exploring the subconscious and the emotional level of dream imagery, to creating a most real and direct encounter between my body and the viewer. The work became much more minimal. I focused on exploring my ability to unify sculpture and body, and artist and viewer, as well as the work s ability to not only embody an emotion, but to conjure it up in the viewer. I pondered: How do I make somehow feel vulnerable? How can I encourage empathy? How do I represent joy? How can I use my work to get the viewer to question and explore their relationship with their body? Residencies in Holland, and at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, allowed me the opportunity to work outside in nature, and challenged me to adapt to foreign landscapes. experimented with various body Figure 5

12 9 extensions in order to investigate and document a very direct interaction between the sculpture, my surroundings, and myself. Figure 6 Inspiration can come at any time. In a flash, I am consumed by ever-changing emotions and sensations: love, passion, fright, joy, awe, beauty, compassion, exhaustion; feelings so strong that they affect my whole body. Entranced, I then envision the emotion love melts my body, my dress converts into a bag with linked sleeves becoming the handle, making me instantly portable so the object of my passion can carry me away with him. Physical sensation and/or emotion as impetus, I begin Figure 7 to feel my way through embodying the idea. Making requires a very open state of mind a balance of decisionmaking and listening for the magic to whisper. So much is revealed while creating, it is

13 crucial to take note of every moment. Each decision made is full of potential and of 10 revelation. The finished piece should speak volumes more than the original idea intended. I employ the fundamentals of play in order to embody my physical emotions. I am constantly creating new physical experiences for myself in order to fully express my imagination. Some of my best ideas have come from spurts of spontaneous fun. There is great potential for revelation in the manic moments. To play is to think without limitations. I love horror movies for this very reason, because anything is possible at any given moment and I am thrilled by the huge emotions that watching them conjures up inside me. Dream Imagery also inspires me. I am fascinated by how our mind chooses to embody emotions and feelings. I allow myself those transformative abilities in order to articulate my emotions in a performance. My body has become a paintbrush, a horse, a serpent, and a dragon. I have made it snow, and have turned myself inside out. Figure 8

14 11 Participating in Exit Art s Reconstruction Biennial helped refine the interaction between the audience and the art in my live performances. Body Language presented the viewer with a clear role within the work. The portals in the side of the incubator clearly implied the desired action of the viewer. Their touch became the unifying element in the work. Figure 9 I have always been frustrated that throughout the recent history of live performance the female body has been presented as a vulnerable object onto which the viewer has been invited to inflict a negative action. Consider Marina Abramovic in her performance entitled Rhythm 0, lying on a table with an array of implements, from a loaded gun to chocolate syrup, available for the viewer to use on her, to Yoko Ono s Cut Piece where she sat on stage as the audience repeatedly approached her and cut away with scissors at the dress she was wearing. In both of these situations the audience was only given the option of doing harm, regardless of whether they chose the syrup or the gun. I have created performances that proved that when given the option the viewer would consistently do something kind. Of the thousands of people that reached into the incubator during my three months of performances in New York City, only three behaved inappropriately. Art should serve as a positive force, articulating the change we wish to see in the world. My work encourages

15 the viewer to empathize, and it gives them the opportunity to interact with an object, or human, in order to better understand it. 12 Figure 10 Performative work demands the use of photography as a means of capturing a specific image. That image should serve as more than just documentation of an event that has passed; the photograph should function as a unifying element of the work. It must serve to capture the moment of transformation when the body and sculpture unify. I am captivated by images like that of Bruce Nauman s Self Portrait as a Fountain and of Marina and Ulay s collaborative performances like Relation in Time and Imponderabilia ; they are concise, direct, and beautiful. The photographs of my interactions with my sculptures constantly present a foreign view of something I have known well and directly physically experienced.

16 13 Cindy Sherman also uses the camera to capture that moment of transformation. She describes standing before the mirror, dressed in costume with a cable release in her hand, waiting for the moment when she no longer recognizes herself, and then snaps the photograph. The photograph of this Figure 11 stranger she created somehow helps her to find herself. She describes creating her series of photographs entitled Untitled Film Stills : These are pictures of emotions personified, entirely of themselves, with their own presence. I m trying to make other people recognize something of themselves, rather than me. (Schjeldahl and Danoff, Cindy Sherman, p.195) Like Cindy Sherman, I am not interested in creating self-portraits. In most of the images and live performances, my face is covered or turned away, so that the attention is focused on my interaction with the sculpture, and so the viewer can focus their attention on their

17 interaction with work. Sherman and I create images that help us to understand ourselves better by allowing us to explore self as the other. 14 I share Sherman s abstract sense of self and her intuitive approach to creating, but I find the evolution of Rebecca Horn s work to be the most closely related to my own; beginning with her early explorations with performance, using body extensions and costumes, to her most recent installations of anthropomorphic machines. Rebecca Horn s work captures and explores the unity between sculpture and body. I have always kept her work in mind as a guide to the various challenges I need to solve myself. Horn s work has encouraged me to explore ways of representing the body without it being physically present within the work. I have displaced my body, examining it inside and out, and reconstructed it using external Figure 12 elements. Collaged photocopies of my breasts, butt, face and hair, resemble ultrasound images and x-rays, whereas glass and wood receptacles, collecting fluids, hair and nails, document and measure my body in space. Outside body gives a glimpse inside and inside body is given form outside. The object was now performing independently of me.

18 15 Figure 13 This has led to an investigation of surrogate bodies. An internship with world-renowned puppeteer Roman Paska, during his production of Dead Puppet Talk in New York, introduced me to the multi-faceted world of live theatrical production. Puppetry explores the body and gesture, sets, the magic of interacting with a sculpture, and live performance, all major interests in my work, so it was a very easy transition to make. Paska s work, which relies on the loosely tied narrative of dreams and of the imagination, led me to the discovery of Basil Twist, whose work is abstract and focuses mainly on the animation of non-representative objects: fabric underwater and Japanese screens creating moving paintings. His production Symphonie Fantastique, a puppet show of choreographed fabrics and materials dancing underwater, has inspired me to explore more live interactions

19 with my sculptures. But, unlike his production, I am interested in removing myself from the work and allowing the viewer to have the opportunity to animate the object. 16 I am currently developing a series of jointed figures that allow for an exploration of movement beyond the limitations of the human body. These interactive sculptures and framed drawings allow the viewer to explore the body as form and challenge them to use their body in a new way. Figure 14 Figure 15 I want to give the viewer an opportunity to play, to engage with a sculpture on a direct and creative level. I believe that engaging a person physically encourages a better understanding of the object they are interacting with, and a better understanding of themselves. To understand, we have to use our heads, meaning our minds. Most people think of the mind as being located in the head, but the latest findings in physiology suggest that the

20 17 mind doesn t really dwell in the brain but travels the whole body on caravans of hormone and enzyme, busily making sense of the compound wonders we catalogue as touch, taste, smell, hearing, vision. (Ackerman, xix) I consider myself to be an intuitive artist. Every decision, from my selection of materials to locations, is guided mainly by instinct. Each piece unfolds to lead me to an end result far beyond the reach of my original intent. Art is a process based on faith, there is no definite goal, no deadline, and no rules. Just trust. Each is on his own individual, personal journey. Every piece I have ever made, and every experience that I have had, has lead me to where my work is today. I strive to achieve, maintain, and nurture a harmony with my art in order to allow the work to continue to lead me as I dedicate myself to refining and shaping its path. Figure 16

21 Bibliography Ackerman, Diane. A Natural History of the Senses, New York: Vintage Books, Schjeldahl, Peter and Danoff, I. Michael. Cindy Sherman. New York: Pantheon Books, Steiner, Rochelle. Cindy Sherman. London: Art Data,

22 19 VITA Alessandra Torres Born: June 7, 1980 EDUCATION 2006 M.F.A. Sculpture Virginia Commonwealth University 2002 B.F.A Sculpture Maryland Institute College of Art EXHIBITION RECORD 2005 Go Figure!, JET Artworks, Washington D.C Seven, The Warehouse, curated by Lenny Campello Hosted by the Washington Project for the Arts/Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington DC 2005 More Fresh Meat, Kim Foster Gallery, New York, NY 2005 Juried Exhibition, Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetown, MA 2005 Sweet Substitute, Stevenson Blanche Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 2004 Madison's Cave, Keith Talent Gallery, London, UK 2004 Out of Body, VCU Anderson Gallery, Richmond, VA 2004 It Came From The Graduate Studios, VCU F.A.B Gallery, Richmond, VA 2004 SuperSalon, Samson Projects, Boston, MA 2004 Ray Kass-a-role, ArtWorks, Richmond, VA 2003 It Came from The Graduate Studios, F.A.B. Gallery, VCU Richmond, VA 2003 Reconstruction Biennial, Exit Art, New York, NY 2002 Wearable Arts, La Diference, Richmond, VA 2002 Subtle Interventions, University of Virginia Fayerweather Gallery, Charlottesville, VA 2002 Through My Mind's Eye, MICA Meyerhoff and Decker Gallery, Baltimore, MD 2002 Options!: Biennial, Millennium Art Center, curated by Victoria Reis Hosted by the Washington Project for the Arts/Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington DC 2002 Possess/Pose-us, MICA Student Space Gallery, Baltimore, MD 2001 Juried Undergraduate Exhibition, MICA Decker Gallery, Baltimore, MD 2001 Daidalos Dreams, MICA Meyerhoff Gallery, Baltimore, MD 2001 Daidalos Dreams, A.K.I. (Akademie Kunst Industre), Enschede, Holland 2001 MICA-VCU Sculpture Exchange, VCU F.A.B. Gallery, Richmond, VA 2001 Permanent Public Sculpture Installation, Baltimore, MD 2000 Juried Undergraduate Exhibition, MICA Meyerhoff Gallery, Baltimore, MD

23 SCHOLARSHIPS AND GRANTS Jacob K. Javits Memorial Fellowship 2005 Travel Grant, awarded by Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), to exhibit at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, MA 2004 Travel Grant, awarded by VCU, to exhibit at the Keith Talent Gallery in London, UK 2003 Nominated for the 2003 Louis Comfort Tiffany Biennial Award 2002 H. Theo Young Memorial Scholarship 2002 Graduate School Scholarship Granted by VCU 2001 Sculpture Departmental Award` 2001 Maryland Institute College of Art Achievement Award 20 RESIDENCIES 2005 Sculpture Space, funded by a grant from the from the New York Council on the Arts 2003 Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture 2001 International Sculptural Residency, hosted by A.K.I. (Akademie Kunst Industre) in Enschede and the island of Schiermonninkoog, Holland ARTIST LECTURES 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002 Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) Baltimore, MD Visiting Artist/Guest Lecturer 2004 The Muse Hotel, NYC, NY Guest Lecturer on a Panel Discussion Promoting MICA's Undergraduate Program 2004 Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Richmond, VA Guest Lecturer and Director of a Mold-Making Workshop INTERNSHIPS 2004 Assistant Creative Collaborator to Roman Paska, World-Renowned Director and Puppeteer 1998 School 33 Art Center, Baltimore, MD BIBLIOGRAPHY The Arts. The Utica Observer-Dispatch. August 25, 2005: 11. Bailey, James. "Alessandra Torres - Artist Interview." Black Cat Bone: Burning The Flesh Off Modern Art. August 11, < Roberts-Pullen, Paulette. "Let the Show Begin", Style Weekly. May 5, 2004:

24 Nieman, Carrie. "Spring Arts: Art Collecting for Dummies", Style Weekly. March 3, 2004: 29. Smith, Roberta. "Art: The Highs; The Art and Artists Of the Year", The New York Times. Sunday, December 28, Arts & Entertainment. "VCU Sculpture Student Wins National Award", Richmond Times. Wednesday, October 15th, Mar, Alex. "Exit Art: A New Space, A New Audience?", The New York Sun. Thursday, May 29, McMullen, Cynthia. "Back to the incubator for a new perspective", Richmond Times. Sunday, May 11th, "The Reconstruction", The New Yorker. April 13, 2003: 15. (Cartoon and Review) Smith, Roberta. "A Space Reborn, With a Show That's Never Finished", The New York Times. April 4, Robinson, Walter. "Weekend Update", Artnet Magazine. April Won, Jason. "The Gallery Invites the Public to Help it Settle into a New Location", Citysearch. April Carr, Christine. "Every Exit is an Entrance", The Village Voice. March 12-March 18, Messina, Paul. "Alternative Art Center Finds New Home in Hell's Kitchen", NY1 News. March 10, Boisseau, Susan. "Curious Couture-Wearable Arts Show", The Richmond Times. October 30, Mac Gillis, Alec. "The Art of Finding Off-Off-Off Campus Resources", The Baltimore Sunday May 27, Franke-Ruta, Garance. "CityLights-This Week's Most Intriguing Events"Options 2002", Washington City Paper. March 22-March 28, Dawson, Jessica. "Arts-A Breath of Fresh Art at Millennium", The Washington Post. March 14, Gopnik, Blake. "Arts-Here and Now", The Washington Post. March 10, O'Sullivan, Michael. "On Exhibit-A Better Set of "Options", The Washington Post. March 8, O'Sullivan, Michael. "Weekend's Best-Exhibition "Options 2002", The Washington Post. March 1, O'Grady, Jenny. "A Work in Progress-Millersville Sculptor Shows Art in Baltimore, D.C.", Maryland Gazette. December 27, O'Grady, Jenny. "A Work in Progress-Local Sculptor's Artistry To Be Displayed in Baltimore/Washington", The Capital. December 27,