ehsan gill

Performed at the University of plymouth

  The Proposal

Name of performance: Performance 1 to become king

When: Friday 7th December
The purpose of this performance is to engage in a performative consideration of my body and its fluctuation between an othered and ordered status. In a wider context it will articulate my difficult and sometimes conflicting cultural position as both a British citizen and member of the Muslim community.

For the performance I will stand naked in the space and apply Mehndi onto my body. Then at a previously decided cue will perform the actions of Wudu (ritual cleansing) with water. This is a durational performance in which my body will alternate between a pure and impure status never entirely reaching either.

In understanding the theoretical aims of this performance it is best to understand the parts in relation to their originating cultural context. Mehndi is the application of Henna, a plant based dye used in skin decoration in North Africa , the middle East, India and Southeast Asia. Used to create dense intertwining patterns which dye the skin this material is predominantly used on the hands and feet. The wider cultural context in its use however is its exclusivity as a female beautification product. By utilising a material that has an exclusive feminine association (even in a British context) I hope to other my body’s status and disrupt the clear gender definitions that articulate an implicit and stable male body.

The use of Wudu in this context also has certain culturally specific qualities that require expansion. Wudu is the practice of cleansing performed by Muslims before prayer or reading the Qur’an. Although the ritual is used to cleanse the body it is only a partial reflection of the Ghusl in which the entire body is submerged in water. The Wudu only touches on the hands, feet and head and is therefore less about the removal or dirt than a symbolic preparation for religious activity. I have specifically chosen a purification ritual for this performance as contrast to the Mendhi, which symbolically dirties my body by blurring lines of gender. Through performance I hope the Wudu to become the dynamic opposite to the ritual of Mendhi between which my body is sent back and forth.

This performance is to be durational where the audience is able to enter the space and watch the actions performed at their will. This process is designed to reflect the ongoing status of my body as it navigates the two states. The overall effect is the ability of the audience to catch me in a consistent state of transition as I perform the two actions.

in hindsight there were few things that ‘worked’ in this performance, but as the purpose at this stage was experimentation i learned some valuable information.

firstly i realized that without the above text the audience for my performance would not be aware of the cultural context of my ‘othering’. mendhi and its gendered context may not be clear to an audience that was not from the same cultural background.

secondly the original intention of my performance changed into a more interactive focus. when i did the performance someone directly painted me with mendhi and like a light bulb over my head i knew that this was more important than anything else, the interaction. to the point at which when people left the room i didn’t want to perform.

thirdly when its me in the room with three or more people its a very public atmosphere. when others leave and its just me with one other person it switched to something very private. apparently an audience can be made up of just one other person

read post-performance reactions