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Artists and Trance

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Art, Ritual, and Trance Inquiry

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Abstract

This chapter introduces eight woman artists as contemporary exemplars of trance-based artworkings. Multiple languages of art assist in articulating their ritual and trance-based art, including audio, visual, somatic, and poetic renderings. Artist exemplars in this chapter are Katherine Dunham, Maya Deren, Meinrad Craighead, Hélène Cixous, Shirin Neshat, Gloria Anzaldúa, Karen Finley and Marina Abramović. The chapter offers an Awake Dream Walking trance practice at the end.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Ettinger 2002, 230.

  2. 2.

    I encourage exploration of international women surrealist artists (eg. Varo Remedios, Eva Svankmajerová, Francesca Woodman, Dora Maar, & Frida Kahlo).

  3. 3.

    Ilene S. Fort et al.

  4. 4.

    Rabinovitch, 210.

  5. 5.

    Dunham 1983.

  6. 6.

    Ibid.

  7. 7.

    Dunham 2005a, 519.

  8. 8.

    Gonzalez, 33.

  9. 9.

    Dunham 2005b, 551.

  10. 10.

    Ibid.

  11. 11.

    Kudálcek.

  12. 12.

    Ibid.

  13. 13.

    Rabinovitz, 199.

  14. 14.

    Berger, 301.

  15. 15.

    Maya Deren’s first film with Alexander Hammid, 1944 Meshes of the Afternoon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KamHwKHg64o

    At Land 1944 silent film by Maya Deren. https://vimeo.com/113082270

  16. 16.

    Fallen Tree Time, 5 minute art video https://vimeo.com/manage/240590107/general

  17. 17.

    Ibid.

  18. 18.

    Ibid., Kudálcek.

  19. 19.

    Dosser.

  20. 20.

    Craighead, 1.

  21. 21.

    Meinrad’s art https://www.meinradcraighead.com/

  22. 22.

    Ibid., Craighead, 29.

  23. 23.

    Ibid., 67.

  24. 24.

    Ibid., 65.

  25. 25.

    Ibid., 47.

  26. 26.

    Cixous 1997, 356.

  27. 27.

    See Jordan and Bickel.

  28. 28.

    Ibid. Cixous, 351.

  29. 29.

    Cixous 2007, n.p.

  30. 30.

    Cixous 1993, 98.

  31. 31.

    Ibid., 156.

  32. 32.

    Shirin Neshat in conversation with Phong Bul.

  33. 33.

    Neshat: Land of Dreams film excerpt https://www.facebook.com/thebroadmuseum/videos/486436175536961/?v=486436175536961

  34. 34.

    Neshat and Bul.

  35. 35.

    Anzaldúa, and Keating 2009, 292.

  36. 36.

    Spiritual activism is drawn from Gloria Anzalduá who combines spirituality with social change action. In Keating 2008, 60.

  37. 37.

    Anzaldúa, 46.

  38. 38.

    See the art video trance where I shapeshift into a worm. It took me three years to realize the worm was offering needed knowledge regarding my chronic illness with mineral deficiency and heavy metal toxicity. I began ingesting edible clay and my symptoms rapidly dispersed. https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/atj/vol2/iss1/8/

  39. 39.

    Ibid., Anzaldúa in Keating 2009, 106.

  40. 40.

    Ibid., Keating.

  41. 41.

    Ibid., Anzaldúa in Keating, 292.

  42. 42.

    Ibid., Keating.

  43. 43.

    Jacemba.

  44. 44.

    Finley and Bruguera artist talk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CONFbrG3bWA

  45. 45.

    Fisher.

  46. 46.

    Grosz, 73.

  47. 47.

    Abramović, 316.

  48. 48.

    Ulay shared “I think we should be more radical… ‘aesthetics without ethics are cosmetics,’ and it is more than ever the case today.” https://news.artnet.com/art-world/ulay-marina-abramovic-memoir-1278743

  49. 49.

    Ibid., Abramović.

  50. 50.

    Film Trailer, The Artist is Present with Marina Ambramović https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcmcEZxdlv4

  51. 51.

    Ibid., Abramović, 318–319.

  52. 52.

    Ibid., 343.

  53. 53.

    Ibid., 344.

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  1. Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL, USA

    Barbara A. Bickel

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Bickel, B.A. (2020). Artists and Trance. In: Art, Ritual, and Trance Inquiry. Palgrave Studies in Movement across Education, the Arts and the Social Sciences. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45745-7_4

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