My body is not my home. I have felt like a creature without a mouth, unable to feed in a world of plenty. My body is not my home. I have felt othered in a room filled with friends, unable to see myself how they see me. My body is not my own. I have felt as though the space I occupy is both too large and too small, as I struggle to understand the form that I have been given.
South Korean artist Lee Bul’s work primarily focuses on sculpture and performance art. Her performance Sorry For Suffering – You Think I’m A Puppy On A Picnic consisted of Bul spending twelve days travelling from South Korea to Japan wearing a costume which she made. She wore the costume throughout the entire journey, including going through airport security and on the plane. The piece is widely considered to be a feminist critique of the way in which woman’s bodies are controlled in East Asian society, and Lee achieved this by making her own body the centre of the piece.
I am neither East Asian nor a woman. However, as a non-binary person I found Sorry For Suffering… to be an arresting portrayal of the human body, and the othering that can occur when you do not understand your own.
My body is not my own. When I walk down the street, I feel the same eyes looking at me that watched Lee. The costume itself is heavy and not designed with movement in mind. When I visited the TATE Modern and saw videos of the piece in person, I was struck by how often Lee falls over or comes close to becoming injured. In one sequence, she struggles to get down a set of stairs in, what looks to be, a train station. A crowd of people gathered to watch her, many, I am sure, unaware of what they were witnessing. By placing herself in a situation where she has to be watched, Lee forces an audience to come to terms with the space which she takes up. Whether they are willing to or not, they have to confront the body she occupies.
As I watched Lee stumbling around, I began to consider the limitations of space within performance art, and how I could best utilise the spaces of display which I am given. Unlike the piece like Sorry For Suffering…, my practice resides in sound art. Like the piece Sorry For Suffering, I am interested in the spaces which audiences occupy alongside an artwork, and how to make a piece force attention. Much of my practice is created with the audience becoming overwhelmed in mind, with the intention being that they are made uncomfortable, as they are forced to challenge aspects of themselves that they may not otherwise consider.
Lee forces her audience to be confronted with her body. I will force my audience to be confronted with theirs.