Ah, Pussy, of the Sands, No.2
Ah, Pussy, of the Sands No.2, 2017
Double-channel projection, color video, sound, 29:00 minute loop
Casandra Davis, cinematographer
In, Ah, Pussy, of the Sands No.2, I pull from my biography to explore the notion of the contemporary athlete as animal, specifically, as cat. I investigate perceived notions of authority and hierarchical understandings by conflating the objectification of the athletic body, the female body, and the natural realm. Evoking the appearance of Aimee Mullins’s leopard character in Mathew Barney’s Cremaster 3 (2002), with narration of Yves Klein’s renowned performance, Blue Women Art, 1962, I draw parallels between two historically acclaimed male artists (Barney and Klein) who use the female body as a tool for their own means and benefit. Yet where Barney produced a personal mythology with idiosyncratic references in U.S. popular culture, I work within the myth of the studio itself, as embodied by artists such Bruce Nauman and Carolee Schneemann. The symbol of the cat goes back to Olympia, the dawn of modernism, and the rupture of agency beginning with Olympia's restrictive hand. The artist-athlete, like a figure for physical vitality or potency itself, subverts such concept by painting herself, pushing herself, highlighting her trained physicality, and flaunting her body and skill. My approach is modeled after iconic Schneemann works such as, Up to and Including her Limits (1972-76), and Aimee Mullins’s career as Olympic athlete, model, actress, and activist. Using my body as a literal means of production, I take back my body from the objectified pages of modern and contemporary art histories by means of fantastical play hybridized with a show of bodily power, strength, and force of will. The final product renders me the single agent of my trained body, mind, and practice, while nodding to the histories of women who came before.