The Illuminated Body: Excerpts from an Atlas of Illness and Injury

摘要

Using the metaphor of a body atlas, this paper charts an exploration of the sense of touch.Although photography is considered to be a visual art, The Illuminated Body demonstrates theways in which the sense of touch underlies an embodied point of view. Monochromatic self-portraitslayered and embossed with enigmatic healing talismans lend a physical and emotionaltactility to the photographic project. The relationship of touch to visible and invisible pains and thematerialization of memory on the skin reveal a reciprocality between self and other, inside andout. Buddhist philosophy considers mind to be a sixth sense and regards touch as fundamental tothe process of perception. Phenomenology reflects the importance of intentionality in the firstperson point of view and the unavoidability of a reciprocal relationship with the world; as theworld touches us through our sense perceptions, so do we touch the world. A synthesis of the twophilosophies is possible only by acknowledging the uniqueness of an incarnate perspective, firmlyrooted in the flesh. Skin can be understood as receptacle for memory, not only in the stories ofscars, but also in the inevitable co-mingling of sensation and memories. A number of photographicartists including Geneviève Cadieux, Annette Messager and Myra Greene work with fragmentedbody parts and skin, weaving fiction, history and metaphor into moving stories of the flesh. TheIlluminated Body draws on a constellation of ideas in these and other artists' works tocontextualize and search for resonance in photographic self-portraiture. Using illness and injury asa points of departure, The Illuminated Body uses of discourses of skin and touch to elucidate thecommonalities of human experience that are hidden within personal narrative and associativememory.