THE BODY AS A MEMBRANE OF EXPERIENCE
Presented by LIVESTOCK
A Live Art Performance Event
Date: Saturday 5th April 2025 at 4pm
Location: The MART Gallery, 190A Rathmines Road Lower, Rathmines, Dublin 6
Curated by: the Ljilja on behalf of Livestock
Featuring: Vera Ryklova, Louis Fleischauer, Paul Regan, the Ljilja
But there is a thing
Which is something,
Only one thing
Which is something,
And which I feel
Because it wants
TO GET OUT:
The presence
Of my bodily
Suffering. – Antonin Artaud, 1938
Jung teaches that the artist is a vehicle for the psychic life of humankind. We are living in an era of instant gratification, media distraction, social media consumption of images, and “everything that was directly lived has recede into a representation” (Guy Debord, Society of the Spectacle, 1967) To maintain an image of self, which is representative to a world transformed into mere images, individuals are required to sustain an image of self, aligned with a highly demanding Society. In the process we have lost connection with our true self. As a society we have alienated ourselves from our primal selves. By sustaining the darkness inside of our bodies in order to appear strong and in control we are preventing our true self from coming to light. But what will happen if we allow that darkness, that pulsating pain of life to burst out of our bodies in order to sustain in tune with our primal self? How would that bodily pain of life be expressed through our body as a membrane of experience? How as artists we are responding to the chaos happening around the world and inside of us? What is piercing our bodies? Where is Joy in life? Sadness? Anger for all the injustice we are witnessing around us? Where is hope in a better tomorrow? How do you erase your body and then draw it newly all over again?
Living beneath the skin of society; such a body seeks to shed the clothes of social construction.
Supported by The MART Gallery & Studios, Livestock and The Arts Council of Ireland.
A Note from The Gallery: This event may include adult themes, explicit content, and depictions of bodily harm; attendees must be 18+.
