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EAR ON ARM SUSPENSION is a performance where the body is suspended above a 4m long sculpture. 16 hooks were inserted along the back of the torso, arms and legs to equally distribute the body’s weight. As it was winched up, the body assumed its full weight, stretching its skin.
Because of the braided steel cable untwisting as it assumed the full weight, it begins to untwist and the body begins to spin, first one way and then the other. What was first imagined as a 5-minute performance ended up being 15 minutes.
The performance was about a counterpoint in scale. A whole physical body suspended above a larger fragment of the body – the ear on an arm. The body becomes an object in a sculptural installation. The performance began when the body was hoisted off the sculpture and ended when the body touched down. The 16 stainless steel hooks were inserted whilst the body lay on the Ear On Arm sculpture. After the cables were connected the body was winched up approximately 50 cm above the sculpture. The body spun one way and then the other for approximately 15 min.
When it stopped spinning, and in the correct orientation, the body was then lowered down. The installation was left in place for the duration of the exhibition with an edited video and an image authenticating the performance. The event was both a looping back to a previous performance strategy and simultaneously a looking forward to the Ear On Arm project, exposing the physicality of both.
The performance occurred on Thursday 8 March as part of the SUSPENSIONS exhibition which was from 7-31 March 2012 at SCOTT LIVESEY GALLERIES.
Stelarc: “The suspensions are experiments in bodily sensation, expressed in different spaces and in diverse situations. They are not actions for interpretation, nor require any explanation. They are not meant to generate any meaning. Rather they are sites of indifference and states of erasure. The body is empty, absent of its own agency and obsolete”.
The Exhibition And Performance Was Dedicated To Nobuo Yamagishi, The Director Of The Maki, Tamura And Komai Galleries In Tokyo When Stelarc Lived In Japan. Yamagishi-San Was Admired Both Personally And Professionally. He Is Greatly Missed.
