Hannah Wilke Intra Venus II

7/28/2019 Hannah Wilke Intra Venus II

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/hannah-wilke-intra-venus-ii 1/15

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Exposed Wounds: The Photographic Autopathographiesof Hannah Wilke and Jo Spence

amar embeck, PhD candidate (ABD), Dept. o Art History and Communication Studies, McGill University

Résumé

L’article s’intéresse aux autopathographies produites par Hannah Wilke et par Jo Spence inspirées par la lutte qu’elles ont toutes deux menéecontre le cancer dans les années 80 et au début des années 90. Les deux artistes se sont tournées vers l’autopathographie pour réinventer

leurs propres images corporelles, ainsi que l’image sociale de leur maladie. En examinant de près leurs productions, l’article décrit les stratégies

esthétiques et politiques qu’elles emploient pour transmettre leur expérience. Wilke transorme activement son vécu sourant en l’image d’un

exosquelette blessé, où des marques réelles, ainsi que des signes construits autour de sa douleur, sont exhibés sur son corps et par lui. Par cette

transormation, l’artiste parvient à exprimer une position critique ace aux préjugés culturels qui sont rattachés à (l’image de) sa maladie. Spence,

pour sa par t, crée une dialectique visuelle du sujet malade, où son image ne peut acilement être réduite aux statuts extrêmes de « victime » ou

d’« héroïne ». L’image du sujet qui en émerge demeure dynamique et complexe, et échappe aux stéréotypes préjudiciaux. L’article se penche

également sur la dimension perormative impliquée dans toute autoreprésentation, et, plus précisément, dans les objets culturels liés à la maladie

tels que les talismans et les ex-voto, qui sont décrits par Thierry Davila comme étant des « ormes agissantes ». Les œuvres de Wilke et Spence

nous portent à réféchir sur la lourde responsabilité qu’il nous aut assumer ace aux œuvres pathographiques et aux images de la sourance.

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Autopathographic Perormativity

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RACAR XXXIII | N 1-2 | 2008

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Wilke and Spence have each exploited the perormative

contradictions implicit to their sel-representations. Not only do

they disarm conventional expectations pertaining to the depic-

tion o emale bodies, but they also counter the continued mar-

ginalization o diseased subjects in representation. Both artists’

creative paths were signicantly inormed by eminist politics, as

well as by their own autobiographies. In each case, their ultimate

reections on illness and dying were preceded by earlier treat-

ments o the same subjects. Beore her cancer diagnosis, Wilke

extensively documented her mother’s experience o breast can-

cer, surgery, and hospitalization in the exhibitions So Help Me

Hannah (1978, P.S.I, New York City) and Support FoundationComfort (1984, Ronald Feldman Fine Arts Gallery, New York

City). Similarly, beore developing terminal leukemia, Spence

constructed a didactically oriented photographic analysis o her

experience with breast cancer or Te Picture of Health? (1982–

86), a touring exhibition, rst shown in 1983 at Camerawork in

London. In their distinct ways, Wilke’s and Spence’s autopatho-

graphic productions are integral to the artists’ lielong creative

practices, which have consistently engaged aesthetic, political,

and even metaphysical concerns through the (sel-)representa-

tion o emale bodies in particular, and critical perspectives on

women’s social roles in general. What ollows is a brie glimpse

into the artists’ manipulations o the autobiographical mode inorder to convey their experiences o illness. Both artists inject

their representations with an authorial presence that is at once

playul, troubling, and powerully afrmative.

Hannah Wilke: Autopathography as the Constructiono a Wounded Exoskeleton

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Figure 1. Hannah Wilke, So Help Me Hannah Series: Portrait of the Artist wit h Her Mother, Selma Butter , 1978–81. Cibachrome photograph dipt ych, each panel

101.6 x 76.2 cm (Courtesy o Ronald Feldman Fine Ar ts, New York; photo: Dennis Cowley / © Marsie, Emanuelle, Damon and Andrew Scharlatt/ Licensed

by VAGA, New York, NY).

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This image cannot be shown online due to copyright restrictions.

To view please visit the following link:http://www.hannahwilke.com/id5.html



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Figure 2. Hannah Wilke. June 15, 1992 / January 30, 1992: No. 1 from Intra-Venus , 1992–93. Performalist Self-Portrait with Donald Goddard, Chromagenic

supergloss prints, two panels, each 181.6 x 120.7 cm (Courtesy Donald and Helen Goddard and Ronald Feldman Fine Ar ts, New York; photo: Dennis

Cowley / © 2006 Donald Goddard).

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Figure 3: Hannah Wilke. July 26, 1992 / Februar y 19, 1992: No. 4 rom Intra-Venus, 1992–93. Perormalis t Sel-Portrai t with Donald

Goddard, Chromagenic supergloss prints, two panels, each 181.6 x 120.7 cm (Courtesy Donald and He len Goddard and Ronald Fe ldman

Fine Arts, New York; photo: Dennis Cowley / © 2006 Donald Goddard).



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While it is true that Wilke’s posing in Intra-Venus might

articulate a eminist and even a post-colonial critique o

patienthood and the medical establishment, those who knew

her insist that it was rst and oremost a celebration o lie,

with its many contradictions.27 Intra-Venus was about pursuing

Wilke’s regular daily work, all the while charting the passage o time and the changes in her body. Her amiliar creative pro-

cess was invested with a transormative potential, which, i it

did not heal her, could instead contribute to altering social

perceptions o illness and to countering the ill patient’s pre-

mature social death. Wilke’s autopathographic work also con-

sisted o a metaphysical investigation within a secular context.

As both sitter and photographer in these sel-portraits, she held

up the vanitas mirror to the ragile state o existence between

lie and death, turning her experience o the precariousness

o human lie into a potential point o empathic contact with

Figure 4. Hannah Wilke. June 10, 1992 / May 5, 1992: No. 5 rom Intra-Venus, 1992–93. Perormalis t Sel-Portr ait with Donald Goddard,

Chromagenic supergloss prints, two panels, each 181.6 x 120.7 cm (Courtesy Donald and He len Goddard and Ronald Fe ldman Fine Art s,

New York; photo: Dennis Cowley / © 2006 Donald Goddard) .

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the viewer. By depicting the “kingdom o the sick,”28 that am-

biguous territory between the living, the dying, and the dead,

illness representations such as Wilke’s contain an acting po-tential that might even reach the ethical sensibilities o their

viewers. Beore urther discussing this aspect in the reception

o pathographic images, we turn to the work o British artist

Jo Spence.

Jo Spence: Empowerment through Autopathography

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Figure 5. Jo Spence / Rosy Martin, Infantilization , 1984, rom The Picture of

Health? 1982–86. Photographs laminated on card, 70 x 50 cm (© The Jo

Spence Memorial Archive).

Figure 6. Jo Spence / Terry Dennett, Heroine or Victim? 1984, rom The

Picture of Health? 1982–86. Photograph , 70 x 50 cm (© The Jo Spence

Memorial Archive).

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Figure 7. Jo Spence / Terry Dennett, Crash Helmet Portrait, 1983,rom The Cancer Project. Photograph, 70 x 50 cm (© The Jo Spence

Memorial Archive).

Figure 8. Jo Spence, Cancer Sisters, 1982–83, rom The Cancer Project .Photograph, 70 x 50 cm (© The Jo Spence Memorial Archive).



97

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Photography and the Response to Mortality

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Figure 9. Jo Spence / Terry Dennet t, 15th October, 1984, rom The Cancer Project . Photographs, 50 x 70 cm (© The Jo Spence Memor ial Archive).

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Figure 10. Jo Spence, Looking Death in the Eye, triple slide montage rom The Final Project , 1991–92. Photograph, 70 x 50 cm (© The Jo

Spence Memorial Archive).



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Figure 11. Jo Spence / Terry Dennett , Decay Project / 15th October, 1984,

double slide montage or The Final Project, 1991–92. Photograph,50 x 70 cm (© The Jo Spence Memorial Archive) .

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Acknowledgements

T D J S M- A g , w D G, M N R F F A G, - H W’ g. W x C Lz , A N MP, g wg .

Notes

1 S S G, Disease and Representation: Images o Illness

rom Madness to AIDS (I, 1988), Picturing Health and Ill-

ness: Images o Identity and Dierence (B, 1995); w

S Sg, Illness as Metaphor & AIDS and its Metaphors (Nw

Y, 1990).

2 S T D, “Eéq Cq: Bè I à

’A Mé,” L’Art Médecine , . M Fé D

(P, 1999), 34–63, . 41.

3 A W. F, At the Will o the Body: Refections on Illness (B-

, 2002), 1–7.

4 F : “ ’g ’g é x éé é

’é à ù ’ éé

é ’ê.” T D, “E-

éq Cq,” 51–52. M w

.

5 J B, Giving an Account o Onesel (Nw Y, 2005).

6 B, Giving an Account o Onesel , 32.

7 A H Hw,

g, . S Reconstructing Illness: Studies in

Pathography (W L, 1998), 15.8 Amelia Jones, “Te ‘Eternal Return’: Sel-Portrait Photography as a

echnology o Embodiment,” Signs 27, 4 (2002): 947–78, esp. 950. 9 B’ j g

g. S Gender rouble: Feminism

and the Subversion o Identity (L, Nw Y, 1990), Bod-

ies that Matter: On the Discursive Limits o Sex (L, Nw Y,

1993).

10 O W’ , S G-

, “H H: H W A

F A M,” Hannah Wilke: Exchange Values (V-

-Gz, 2006).

11 S A Kz, “D V,” Hannah Wilke

1940–1993, . S Kz (B, 2000), 103–13, .

104–05.12 S Kz, “D V,” 111; J F,

“F,” Hannah Wilke: A Retrospective , . T H. K-

(C, 1989), 41–50, . 44.

13 P -j -g. “P

gg , g-

g gg,

g gg

.” E S, Te Body In Pain: Te Making and Unmak-

ing o the World (Ox, 1985), 4. S J J, “C

P Bw Sj Oj,” Embodiment

and Experience: Te Existential Ground o Culture and Sel , .

T J. C (Cg, 1994), 201.

14 H W w C Lg, “T A H-g,” Ms ., J/F 1989, 132–33, . 132.

15 J F, “M,” Hannah Wilke: A Retrospective , . T-

H. K (C, 1989), 79–89, . 87.

16 A K, Te Illness Narratives: Suering, Healing, and the

Human Condition (Nw Y, 1988), 22.

17 S Eg G, Stigma: Notes on the Management o Spoiled

Identity (Egw C, 1963).

18 I g w x, W w

g g “” Jw . I -

Intercourse With… (1977), : “



Jw, g w, I w -

I A.”

K, ., Hannah Wilke , 140. 19 W -,

zg w

.

20 L Ig, Tis Sex Which Is Not One, . C P

(I, 1985), 26.

21 “S-g” D Az’ “-

,” w w w ’ g -

/

g . D Az, Le Moi-Peau

(P, 1993).

22 S G, “H W: G ‘T Rg-

U,’” Hannah Wilke: A Retrospective , . E

D H ., x. ., Nj, Cg C-

A C (Cg, 1998), 6–43, . 40.

23 S S J. W, Medicine and the Body (L-

, 2003).

24 Hw B, Stories o Sickness (Nw H, 1987).

25 J-L N, L’Intrus (P, 2000), 39.

26 F “ é, ’ g.”

Ré L, g q Gg Cg, “E

Qq Pè C N Pgq,”

Le Normal et le Pathologique, Augmenté de Nouvelles Réfexions Con-

cernant le Normal et le Pathologique (P, [1943] 1966),

D L B, Anthropologie de la Douleur (P, 1995), 23.

27 P w w M N, , R F

F A G, Nw Y C, 27 J 2006.

28 Sg, Illness as Metaphor , 3.

29 P’ “ ” 1950 -

g. I -

“x g,”

“ ,” “ g w,

g .” W, Medicine and the

Body , 182, .

30 P w w D, , J S M-

A, 26 A 2006, L, Eg.

31 R M, “Pg U A P: T W J S-

,” Camera Austria 43/44 (1993): 43. 32 S G, Picturing Health and Illness ,

“g ” (. 17)

g g,

. I w , x

g’ g

g w g

.

33 R B, Camera Lucida: Refections on Photography (Nw

Y, [1981] 2000).

34 S Sw, “A P L: R P-

g,” Visual Studies 19, 2 (O 2004): 150–161. Sw

g Sg’, w

g “ --,” w

w g w. S S Sg, On

Photography (Nw Y, 1977), . 11, Regarding the Pain o

Others (Nw Y, 2003). I , w, g

w -,

’ g. N,

q q g

g w .

35 Sw, “A P L,” 154 150, g B, Came-

ra Lucida , 66.

36 Sw, “A P L,” 154. E g.

37 Sw, “A P L,” 155.

38 Sw, “A P L,” 155.

39 P g D -

.

40 J w: “[] ‘g ’ [ça a été ] -

g [] ‘ ’ ”

g . J

w “ g’

j; g, x

j ‘’ xg.”

J, “T ‘E R,’” . 976 975.

41 O g g , B, Camera Lucida ,

78.

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Hannah Wilke Intra Venus II

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