Page 230 - Cultural Theory

Edwards-3516-Ch-11.qxd 5/9/2007 5:56 PM Page 219

••• Feminist Knowledge and Socio-cultural Research •••

containment, along with its ability to surprise and unnerve, makes live art’s
impact so far-reaching’ (1995: 9). Performance art could be described as an exem-
plar of anti-identitarian thinking. The audiences are able to re-engage in interpre-
tation at every performance; they do not just receive information but have to
actively engage in meaning making through the process Adorno identifies as:
coming to know a work of art, via a process of immersion in the performance;
identification and subsequent distancing; and finally critical reflection. In earlier
work, I have argued that through art works – performing arts/live arts, painting,
poetry, literature, photography – we are able to get in touch with our ‘realities’,
our social worlds and the lived experiences of others, in ways which demand crit-
ical reflection. This is an active process involving immersion, interpretation, com-
mentary and criticism.
The live art performance of Not all the time … but mostly … as ethno-mimetic text
engages with people as human beings, not as ‘stand-in political subjects’, and in so
doing re-presents the ambivalence of prostitution, and the situation of the women
involved, located as they are between and within discourses of good and bad women.
Moreover, our potential ‘feeling involvement’ in the ethno-mimetic text erupts from
the tension between the mimetic (sensuous knowing) and the rational/constructive
moments in the interplay between movement/performance/motifs and narrative
voice. An evocative tension is created between what is played out on screen (or live)
and the relationship the viewer or audience has with the ‘performance’. One is left
feeling in some cases ‘stunned’, but in others able to grasp reality in its ‘otherness’;
‘feel’ emotional structures and inner experiences; experience the traces of the
‘prostitutes’ ‘work’ within the context of a life, albeit for some a damaged life. In this
sense the ethno-mimetic text is able to ‘say’ the ‘unsayable’, the ‘outside of language’
and undercut identity/identitarian thinking creating potentially space for genuine
‘felt’ involvement which demands critical reflection.

Exemplar 2: Safety soapbox

This second example emerged from research (with Rosie Campbell) in the West
5
Midlands in 2000–2002. A combination of ‘Participatory Action Research’ (PAR) 6,7
and ‘Participatory Arts’ (PA) was used to consult sex workers and communities
affected by prostitution and included the following three groups: sex workers; resi-
dents; and young people resident in the ‘red light’ area, with a view to developing
strategic local responses to prostitution. The research team was made up of the
researchers from Staffordshire and Liverpool Hope University and co-researchers who
were local residents. Alongside the usual ethnographic work and focus group inter-
views, the research team organized art workshops with residents in the red light area;
young people who are resident in the ‘red light’ area; and women working on street.
All produced artforms to express their views, experiences and ideas for addressing the
complex issues of prostitution in residential areas. This work was funded by Walsall
South Health Action Zone and facilitated by Walsall Community Arts and Walsall
Youth Arts.
• 219 •