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Pained Body, Performed Madness: A Study of the Bio-political Philosophy in He Yunchang's Performance Art

Xue, Chenru LU (2018) KOVM12 20181
Division of Art History and Visual Studies
Abstract
This thesis explores the considerations of bare life in He Yunchang’s performance arts, based on two of his works, One-meter democracy (2010) and Golden Sunlight (1999). I make a deep analysis of the images and archives of the two performances, about the artist’s artistic method of using visual signs. Furthermore, I interpret how the artist used the bodily pain to create figures. I also investigate how the performance art as an imitation of madness became a potential threat to the sovereign and law in some circumstances, based on the comparison with another two performance artists, Hua Yong from China and Pyotr Pavlensky from Russia. The circumstance of these artists corresponded to the situation He Yunchang has presented in both his... (More)
This thesis explores the considerations of bare life in He Yunchang’s performance arts, based on two of his works, One-meter democracy (2010) and Golden Sunlight (1999). I make a deep analysis of the images and archives of the two performances, about the artist’s artistic method of using visual signs. Furthermore, I interpret how the artist used the bodily pain to create figures. I also investigate how the performance art as an imitation of madness became a potential threat to the sovereign and law in some circumstances, based on the comparison with another two performance artists, Hua Yong from China and Pyotr Pavlensky from Russia. The circumstance of these artists corresponded to the situation He Yunchang has presented in both his works.
The theoretical aspects of the bio-political philosophy are mostly from Giorgio Agamben’s Homo Sacer theory and his definition of the State of Exception. Foucault’s description of madness in Madness and Civilization is also used to interpret why the performance art is seen as madness, from a historical perspective. Finally, these analyses will lead to a discussion of the relationship between performance art and modern politics which, as I conclude, could be seen as the conflict between madness and rational society. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Xue, Chenru LU
supervisor
organization
course
KOVM12 20181
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
He Yunchang, Performance art, Homo Sacer, State of Exception, Madness
language
English
id
8944143
date added to LUP
2018-06-11 15:49:11
date last changed
2018-06-11 15:49:11
@misc{8944143,
  abstract     = {{This thesis explores the considerations of bare life in He Yunchang’s performance arts, based on two of his works, One-meter democracy (2010) and Golden Sunlight (1999). I make a deep analysis of the images and archives of the two performances, about the artist’s artistic method of using visual signs. Furthermore, I interpret how the artist used the bodily pain to create figures. I also investigate how the performance art as an imitation of madness became a potential threat to the sovereign and law in some circumstances, based on the comparison with another two performance artists, Hua Yong from China and Pyotr Pavlensky from Russia. The circumstance of these artists corresponded to the situation He Yunchang has presented in both his works.
The theoretical aspects of the bio-political philosophy are mostly from Giorgio Agamben’s Homo Sacer theory and his definition of the State of Exception. Foucault’s description of madness in Madness and Civilization is also used to interpret why the performance art is seen as madness, from a historical perspective. Finally, these analyses will lead to a discussion of the relationship between performance art and modern politics which, as I conclude, could be seen as the conflict between madness and rational society.}},
  author       = {{Xue, Chenru}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Pained Body, Performed Madness: A Study of the Bio-political Philosophy in He Yunchang's Performance Art}},
  year         = {{2018}},
}