Rocking/Sucking > Satellite project

By Karen Spencer

rocking
in a common/public area of a Montréal hospital -
exact location and time to be determined
(November 5th, 6th, 7th, 1999)


She places her body on the floor. She assumes a sitting position with feet together, legs bent, arms wrapped around knees and hands clasped together. She slowly shifts her weight backwards until she surrenders into the fall, into the rocking position. She rocks herself. She rocks herself back and forth. She rocks turning her body on its axis in a clockwise rotation. Rotating twice, she stops, waits, lifts herself to the standing position and turns to go.

 

sucking
in the metro, on the street, etc. circulating freely
(November 5th, 6th, 7th, 1999)

She holds the jar in her hand. She opens the lid and places it nearby. She raises her right hand and slowly submerges her fingers in the honey, lifts her honey-drenched fingers to her open mouth, closes her lips and begins to suck. She sucks and sucks until all the honey is gone. She then slides her fingers through her lips and begins again.

 

 

artist statement

She says she can conflate the maternal territory with the autoerotic, as a space of, dare she say it, love? And it is in this space, the maternal/autoerotic, where she says loss can be both acknowledged and transformed as the lost object is re-fantasized, hallucinated. Her body leads her there.

 

 

biography

Karen Spencer (me) was born in 1960. This means she will soon be 40, which means she should have something to say for all this time of being, however, when it comes to writing it down it either sounds irrelevant or pompous, and so she can tell you this: I have a little black dog whose name is Swimmer and we go for long walks together.

 

 

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