What is a “productive body”? How does the category of the productive body—or the unproductive body, the obstinate body—change our approach to questions of subjectivity, identity, and corporeality? In this talk, Soyoung Yoon critiques a newfound fetish for the activity or “liveness” of the human body in relation to choreographer Yvonne Rainer’s most recent performance, The Concept of Dust, or How do you look when there’s nothing left to move? (2014/5). As Rainer questions the practices by which the work of a performer is measured and valued, Yoon asks: What of the invisibility of the performer’s work, in relation to the hyper-visibility of the performer’s body? Introduced by Kaegan Sparks, this evening will investigate current concerns in the practice of Yvonne Rainer, a pioneering artist of the downtown scene along with Alison Knowles in the 1960s, 1970s, and continuing today.
Co-sponsored by the Social Choreography Mellon Seminar in Public Engagement and Collaborative Research in the Humanities and the Ph.D. Program in Art History, The Graduate Center, CUNY.
