During my residency at Atlantic Center for the Arts, and during one of the endless nights of debauchery and karaoke, visual artists Andrea Claire and Amanda Riner selected and wrote words on our bodies. That inspired me to begin a project titled "Written on the Body" (yes - a riff off of Jeannette Winterson's book Written on the Body, as well).
Over the course of 100 days, beginning on May 16, 2007 (the new moon) I will be asking people to select words at random - either from books or from the air - to write on my body.
I'm interested in examining the questions of what constitutes the intimate, how language transforms itself from a random act into an intentional one, how strangers can create connection through art and how my body can act as a site for language and dialogue. I will be photographing (using Polaroid film) each of the words and posting them in chronological order, though eventually I hope that they will be taken out of order. This is an exercise in poetics and performance. And I'm excited to see what turns out.
Ana-Maurine Lara
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