1
Visual Sociology
2007 IVSA Conference Session
New York University
New York, New York, USA
August 10, 11, 12
Panel: Private and Public Body
Representations in Art and Science Chair: Ben
Baruch Blich, Bezalel Academy of Art and
Design, Israel
Alternatives to the Lost Body
By: Dr. Michal Popowsky
Teachers College of Technology,
Department of Design Studies
Tel Aviv, Israel ©
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Introduction
Defined as „the knowledge of the structure of the body‟ (Littré), “Anatomy” has made the human body an object of investigation. As such, it has had a great influence on the perception of bodies inside but also outside the field of medicine. Thus, during the 20th century, Culture, Art and Psychoanalysis, interpretating human anatomy, have produced what Leo Bersani has referred to
[i]as the “Freudian body”.
Leo Bersani , the “Freudian Body”,[i] 1986
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What is the “Freudian body”?
The “Freudian body” is a cultural
item. It discloses the image a
whole population of men and
women have had of their bodies as
a result of the impact of Freud‟s
sexuality and sexed bodies'
theories in the 20th century in
western culture.
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What is the “Freudian body”?
In the 5th conference entitled which he presented in , i][“Femininity”
1933, Freud divided human sexuality into two categories: the positive [+] category and the negative [-] category. Referring respectively to man and to woman i.e. to male and to female, Freud asserted that male/man are to be referred to as [+phallus] and female/woman as [-phallus]. For, according to Freud, men have what women do not have.
th conference entitled “Femininity”, 5Sigmund, Freud,[i]1933
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The “Freudian body”
Freud theoretical assertions had two
main consequences.
The first one was of a biological order
and indicated that if on the one hand
man/male are a [+1] and have a
complete entire and full body, on the
other hand woman/female are a [-1]
and have an “incomplete” body.
The second consequence was of a
symbolic order and indicated that only
man/male could and did detain the
symbolic Power.
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The “Freudian body”: Modern Bodies- Modern Anatomies
Men‟s & Women‟s Freudian Body
Thus, 20th century Modernity
produced two types of sexed bodies:
the „strong‟ sexed bodies defined by
the penis/phallus and the „weak‟
sexed bodies characterized by their
lack of penis/phallus.
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The “Freudian body”: Modern Bodies Modern Anatomies
1. the „strong‟ straight vertical ascending penis/phallus bodies…
were represented by…
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Anton Raderschteidt, Self Portrait, 1928
Modern Bodies Modern Anatomies
1. the „strong‟ straight vertical ascending penis/phallus bodies
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Richard Hamilton“Just What is it that Makes Today's
Home so Different so Appealing”, 1956
Modern Bodies Modern Anatomies
1. the „strong‟ straight vertical ascending penis/phallus bodies
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Karl Hubbuch, Hilde Twice,1932
Modern Bodies Modern Anatomies
1. the „strong‟ straight vertical ascending penis/phallus bodies
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Helmut Newton- Modern female Body-
Sumo6
Helmut Newton [2 visuals]
Modern Bodies Modern Anatomies
1. the „strong‟ straight vertical ascending penis/phallus bodies
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Helmut Newton- Modern female
Body- Sumo7
Modern Bodies Modern Anatomies
1. the „strong‟ straight vertical ascending penis/phallus bodies
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2. the „weak‟ lacking penis/phallus bodies….were shown in….
The “Freudian body”: Modern Bodies Modern Anatomies
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work [i]in Hans Bellmer‟s
[2 visuals]…………….
So powerful and dominant was the signifier „lack‟ that, 20th century iconography translated it into a proto image of woman‟s body defined by the hole or orifices.
1975-1902born French artist, -Bellmer, Hans, German[i]
Hans Bellmer, Tête de mort.
Modern Bodies Modern Anatomies 2. the „weak‟ lacking penis/phallus bodies
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Hans Bellmer-« Oeillades Ciselées en
Branche » de Georges Hugnet
Modern Bodies Modern Anatomies 2. the „weak‟ lacking penis/phallus bodies
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… Marcel Duchamp‟s “Etant Donné”…
Modern Bodies Modern Anatomies 2. the „weak‟ lacking penis/phallus bodies
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…and Egon Schiele‟s Reclining Woman, 1917
Modern Bodies Modern Anatomies 2. the „weak‟ lacking penis/phallus bodies
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Confronted to the claim of their anatomic and symbolic deficiencies, modern women chose, as early as the beginning of the 20th century but merely since the 20‟s, to fight for their right to Symbolic Power - mostly by the means of a reproduction of corporeal signs of Power. They therefore redesigned their body by reducing the volume of their breasts, of their belly and of their buttocks and adopted a flat linear silhouette which they uplifted by putting on high heels stilettos.
[1 visual].
Modern Bodies Modern Anatomies 2. the „weak‟ lacking penis/phallus bodies
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Helmut NewtonModern female Body
Cyber women- Sumo8
Modern Bodies Modern Anatomies 2. the „weak‟ lacking penis/phallus bodies
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Against the “Freudian Body”
1. Boaz Tal
2. Pamela Levy
3. Rei Kawakubo
4. Vivienne Westwood
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1. Boaz Tal
Against the “Freudian Body”
It is in the context of the “Freudian body” that I first became interested in Boaz Tal‟s photograph of Keren Grass. Tal took his picture of Grass for a project which aim was to photograph breast cancer women who underwent breast surgery. The idea of the initiators of the project was to help women restore their self esteem by the picture.
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Boaz Tal, 1997, Keren Grass
Against the “Freudian Body”
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To the question: “Why did you accept to participate to the project?” Tal‟s answer was: “Because my youth was haunted by my mother‟s breast cancer, the removal of her breast and her shame. “ Tal‟s adds: “Women frighten me even when they are dressed. I wanted to know what frightens me. I also wanted to overcome my fear.” [Interview by the author – Tel-Aviv, 10/05/07]
Against the “Freudian Body”- 1. Boaz Tal
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Against the “Freudian Body”- 1. Boaz Tal
Looking at the photography, I was
asking myself what were Boaz
Tal‟s intentions when he told this
feminine woman to lie down under
the orange colored shadowed light.
For, lying on a sofa and looking
straight at the camera, she shows
the front part of her body which
has one breast only, the other
being a plain plane surface.
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The woman's body bears a scare.
It is an altered body.
However, commenting upon
the photography, Tal said
that “what we see is not the
scare which is the outcome of
the breast cancer surgery but,
the smile of the women, the
woman's joy and her
vitality.”
Against the “Freudian Body”- 1. Boaz Tal
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Against the “Freudian Body”
After Boaz Tal, 1997, Keren Grass
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Against the “Freudian Body”- 1. Boaz Tal
It is true that the women‟s smilecatches the eye and prevents it from directing itself towards the incomplete breast and the scare which is the trace of the lack.
The smile shows that the woman communicates with the photograph. It is the sign of her free will not to submit to the sufferings caused by the missing breast as if this missing breast was still alive and she – her body -, still complete, entire and full.
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Against the “Freudian Body”- 1. Boaz Tal
The smile reinforces the idea that the photograph is facing an exceptional body.
This is a body of exception wherein the scare and the „lack‟ recall and sustain the basic primary complete body.
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Thus, when Boaz Tal said that “what I wanted to show was not the [altered] body of the women but the women herself”, he implicitly suggested that, for him, the lacking body [-1] which leads back to the Freudian body, is not but the other body, a body of exception which does not represent women. For, according to Tal, women and women‟s body are not of the order of the lack.
Against the “Freudian Body”- 1. Boaz Tal
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2. Pamela Levy
Against the “Freudian Body”
The Israeli artist, Pamela Levy, a
contemporary of Boaz Tal, was
born in the USA. At the end of
1980, she started painting the
“Bathers” and showed men and
women standing on the beach, in the
water or on the sand and under the
sun.
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Wearing bathing suits, the
“Bathers” are gathered
together. They are talking.
Some are gesticulating.
They are all full of joy.
Their gestures reflect their
„joie de vivre‟.
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Against the “Freudian Body” - 2. Pamela Levy
Pamela Levy‟s painted bodies of
men and women show a full and
complete anatomy wherein limbs are smoothly knotted to one
another and, wherein flesh and
muscles shape a corporeal set of
softly curved lines.
After Pamela Levy’s “The Bathers”
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Against the “Freudian Body” - 2. Pamela Levy
Pamela Levy‟s female painted bodies have no hole, no orifice, and no missing organs. They do not even show „erogenous zones‟ such as the „lips‟
[i]referred to by Luce Irigarayin relation to female women‟s body. (in 1985 (b):20).
Irigaray, Luce, This Sex zhich is not One[i]
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Against the “Freudian Body” - 2. Pamela Levy
Levy‟s men are represented by long
brushed curved lines. Seen through
the eyes of a woman – Pamela
Levy –their masculinity
acquires…………..
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Against the “Freudian Body”
2. Pamela Levy
After Pamela Levy‟s “The Bathers”
…a soft spiritual aura.
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Against the “Freudian Body”- 2.Pamela Levy
Levy therefore asserts
that men‟s and women‟s
sexuality can not be an
act of violence and
is necessarily a reflection
of their mutual reciprocal
“relations”.
For, “Relations”
transform menand women into „subjects‟.
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“Relations” modify the implications of the Freudian conception of sexuality. They show that, through links of connivance, camaraderie, friendship and love, through nearness and proximity, men and women are no longer strangers.
[i])2006(See: Michel Onfray,
2006, Onfray, Michel, Sculpture de Soi[i]http://littera05.free.fr/sculpturedesoi.htm
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Against the “Freudian Body”- 2. Pamela Levy
Thus, Levy‟svisual translation
of the concept of
„Relations‟ involves
the bodies of men and
women who are now
close to one another.
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Against the “Freudian Body” 2. Pamela Levy
Nearness and proximity
• transform men‟s and women‟s bodies into sexed bodies- but not according to Freudian processes or to the Freudian concepts of „phallus‟ and „lack‟.
• eliminate Freud‟s conception of a binary sexuality and its alleged differential rupture based on the difference between the two sexes.
• show that, conversely to Lacan‟s stand, relations cannot but be sexual[i].
Lacan‟s stand that relations are not sexual as it appears in [i]
Encore, Seminar XX, p:14
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Against the “Freudian Body” 2. Pamela Levy
Nearness and proximity
• can not reiterate the metonymic reduction of men‟s and women‟s body to the „penis/phallus‟ and to the „lack‟.
• can not define men‟s and women‟s identity in terms of a symbolic „phallus‟ and a symbolic „lack‟.
• relocate men's and women's body in terms of „fullness‟
• relocate men's and women's generic identity in terms of „proximity‟.
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For, according to Pamela Levy, both male and female
anatomies are embedded in identical similar curved
lines and share a smooth fluidity. They both are
full and complete.
Thus, men and women share common corporeal features and symbolic features.
43Pamela Levy, “The Bathers”,1989
Against the “Freudian Body” - 2. Pamela Levy
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Against the “Freudian Body”
3. Rei Kawakubo 1997-2007: Knots, Lumps and fullness
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It is in the context of these new anatomies that already in 1997, Japanese born fashion designer –Rei Kawakubo started designing garments for her women‟s collections reproducing neither the straight line nor the smooth homogeneous surface proper to modern clothes.
Against the “Freudian Body”- 3.Rei Kawakubo
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Against the “Freudian Body”- 3.Rei Kawakubo
Fashion is a conservative field. It does not change easily. As a cultural phenomenon which associates itself to other phenomena of culture in particular in its relation to bodies; Fashion changes are quite scarce. Colors, fabrics, length and accessories undergo so to call “superficial” changes or surface changes. Deep changes however, are often of the order of garments' structures. They convey new concepts and often initiate new radical sartorial proposals.
, in 1952, 24Gaultier, J.P., is a French fashion designer born April [i]Arcueil, Val-de-Marne- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J.P. Gaultier
Towards a new
perception of the
body and new
sartorial proposals
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Kawakubo‟s creations do not follow women‟s body lines. They have their own “life”. Experimental but at the same time ready to be worn, Kawakubo‟s fits were noticed by the fashion community because of their newness. They had many distinctive features. For example, they were based not on straight lines but on diagonals and their many pieces were not sawn but linked together by knotting techniques.
Against the “Freudian Body”- 3.Rei Kawakubo
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Against the “Freudian Body”- 3.Rei Kawakubo
Knotting soon became a very
important component of
Kawakubo‟s work. By
exploring different knottingmodes, Kawakubo created
different types of knots. With
their curves, their circles and
their spherical volumes, these
knots reflected a new idea of
clothes and of bodies.
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Against the “Freudian Body”- 3.Rei Kawakubo
Thus, the new „sartorial units‟ Kawakubo started producing looked like “balls”. They were presented to the public with no name.
Since referred to as “Lumps"they were placed on different parts of the body -from bottom to top, front and back, on the waist, the hips, the belly, the buttocks and the shoulders.
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Against the “Freudian Body”- 3.Rei Kawakubo
The “Lumps" had no precise function.
However by breaking the linearity of the
modern female body and implanting a new
corporeal fullness, they created a new
silhouette of the female body.
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Against the “Freudian Body”- 3.Rei Kawakubo
The " Lumps " are the translation of the
idea of “fullness” into “new sartorial
units”. They are not the result of the
designer‟s whim but the reflection of what
French designer Gabrielle Chanel used to
call “L‟Air du Temps”. This ”Spirit of the
Time” leaving modern “Freudian Body”
aside, has inaugurated a new postmodern anatomic image.
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Against the “Freudian Body”
4.Vivienne Westwood2003-2007 : Men with no pants
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Against the “Freudian Body”- 4.Vivienne Westwood
Vivienne Westwood designs garments for men. She too uses knotting techniques to knot together the many pieces her men‟s garments are made of. However, the radical aspect of her men‟s collections resides elsewhere. For, since 2003, Westwood has presented men‟s outfits which included no trousers or pants.
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Against the “Freudian Body”- 4.Vivienne Westwood
Eliminating the trousers from men‟s wardrobe was
and still is a revolutionary act.
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Let us remember that trousers, which are still considered as the dominantgarment of men‟s wardrobe, bear a masculine symbolic value.
As a representative of male man masculinity, trousers were exclusively reserved to men. By the same token, they were -by law-strictly forbidden to women until the 20‟s when, with the “help” of Chanel, western modern women appropriate them for themselves.
Against the “Freudian Body”- 4.Vivienne Westwood
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Thus, for decades, pants‟ symbolic value and function remained unchanged and quite clear: it defined the masculinity of male men and men‟s exclusive „right‟ to Power.
Against the “Freudian Body”- 4.Vivienne Westwood
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Against the “Freudian Body”- 4.Vivienne Westwood
The absence of pants in men‟s wardrobe could not go unnoticed, mostly because it indicated a weakening of Freudian male men phallic symbolic value.
By eliminating the pants from her men‟s collections, not only did Westwood show that she rejected Freudian based phallic masculinity and its idea of a phallo-centric Power but that she was willing to relate to a new masculinitywhich foundation was no longer the „penis/phallus‟ and its metonymic generic corporeal image.
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Westwood new sartorial proposals
wrap the waist, the hips and the legs.
Resembling “skirts” – a term which has
been refused by the male men community,
they are dedicated to men whose „male‟
and „masculine‟ image does not in any
way suit a phallic identity.
Against the “Freudian Body”- 4.Vivienne Westwood
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Westwood does not suggest that male men have lost their
anatomic organ but that the signifier „penis/phallus‟ can
no longer be considered as a basis for male men identity.
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Against the “Freudian Body”- 4.Vivienne Westwood
Thus, according to Westwood, male man
masculinity and its symbolic values are
changing.
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The new masculinity which is no more
of the order of the phallus, leads
to another order wherein men
getting close to women, nearness
creates common zones, common
areas, common spaces, common
values, common clothes and a
common corporeal look.
Against the “Freudian Body”- 4.Vivienne Westwood
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Conclusions
Alternatives to the Lost Body….Postmodern Bodies
The rupture between women and men proper to
Freudian theories- is now at stake.
Lacan has integrated the concept of “phallus” to the
register of the Symbolic and stated that "there is no
Indeed, . [i])13, p:XXwoman" (Encore, Seminar
there is no "woman" when the lack which is the
signifier on the basis of which the signifier 'woman'used to be defined, is no longer operational.
13, p:XXIl n'y a pas la femme", Encore, Seminar "[i]
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Conclusions
Alternatives to the Lost Body….Postmodern Bodies
Present-day men‟s and women‟s bodies are no longer modern bodies. They are nolonger defined by the penis/phallus- the dominant referential symbolic organ-or the hole but, by a logic based on……
64Yves Klein, ANT63
Conclusions---- Alternatives to the Lost Body:.Postmodern Bodies
1. Relations
..of limbs,
bodies and
subjects
65Keith Haring
Conclusions---- Alternatives to the Lost Body:.Postmodern Bodies
2. Proximity
…of bodies and
subjects
66
Conclusions---- Alternatives to the Lost Body:.Postmodern Bodies
Henri Matisse,The Dance, 1909/10
3. Similarity
…of bodies and subjects
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Conclusions---- Alternatives to the Lost Body:.Postmodern Bodies
Eric Fischl
4. Fullness
Men, women now have a full complete entire body.
Women‟s anatomy is no
longer a „hole‟ and their
symbolic position is no
longer inferior but identical
to men‟s. As for men, their
identity is no longer of the
order of the phallus.
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Conclusions---- Alternatives to the Lost Body:.Postmodern Bodies
Francis Bacon…..
5. Roundness
Hans Bellmer, Le Centre
de la Poupée, 1935-1936
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Men and women proximal~ related
bodies have created a new
corporeality. This corporeality is
characterized by……
Conclusions---- Alternatives to the Lost Body:.Postmodern Bodies
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….the fluid round, full, complete curvilinear corporeal image has eliminated the Freudian metonymic linear vertical ascendant image of bodies…..
Hans Bellmer, Objet Mobile, 1954
Conclusions---- Alternatives to the Lost Body:.Postmodern Bodies
1. fluid, round, linked, knotted
together limbs
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Conclusions---- Alternatives to the Lost Body:.Postmodern Bodies
….and inaugurated a
rhizomorphic postmodern
body of related units
Hans Bellmer, Les Marionnettes
2. a decentralized
corporeal structure
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Conclusions---- Alternatives to the Lost Body:.Postmodern Bodies
Hans Bellmer, The Spinning Top, 1944-4
3. a corporeal
rhizomorphic [1]
structure …of knotted
limbs
[1]G. Deleuze & F. Guattari
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Conclusions---- Alternatives to the Lost Body:. Postmodern Bodies
Fransceco Clemente, Untitled, 1984
4. a
rhizomorphic
image
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Conclusions---- Alternatives to the Lost Body:. Postmodern Bodies
Rhizomorphic corporeality
….dominant cultural understanding of bodies.
is not a new proposition for it was already present
in within „Modernity‟. However, its status has
changed for although its image is not yet the image
the majority identifies with, it nevertheless reflects a
new ….
Quoting Jameson [1], we shall say that rhizomorphic postmodern corporeal image has
become a “cultural dominant”.
[1] Postmodernism or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, 1991
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Rhizomorphic corpo- image
Richard Prince, Untitled, 1996
Conclusions---- Alternatives to the Lost Body:. Postmodern Bodies
It is in that context that
Genetics has acquired its
symbolic value.
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As the science of cloning, transplants and
DNA, Genetics sees the body as a set of
knotted replaceable limbs~ organs and has
become able to replace most of the limbs~
organs of the human bodies.
David Reed, #349,1996
Conclusions---- Alternatives to the Lost Body:.Postmodern Bodies
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Thus, Genetics acts in within the frame of postmodern bodies.
David Reed, #349,1996
Conclusions---- Alternatives to the Lost Body:.Postmodern Bodies
Rhizomorphic corpo-image
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What, then, will be the visual translation of the
postmodern anatomy in the field of
advertisement?..............If sexuality continues to be
“what sells”, advertisement will be compelled to
invent new rhizomorphic postmodern corporeal
image. What will they look like?
Conclusions---- Alternatives to the Lost Body:.Postmodern Bodies
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Thank You.