Our Palace of Intestines

Couch, Amanda (2017) Our Palace of Intestines. [Performance]

4279:91682
Photograph by Nathan Walker

Photograph by Nathan Walker

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4279:91683
Photograph by Nathan Walker

Photograph by Nathan Walker

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4279:91684
Photograph by Nathan Walker

Photograph by Nathan Walker

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4279:91685
Photograph by Nathan Walker

Photograph by Nathan Walker

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4279:91686
Photograph by Nathan Walker

Photograph by Nathan Walker

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4279:91687
Photograph by Nathan Walker

Photograph by Nathan Walker

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4279:91688
Photograph by Nathan Walker

Photograph by Nathan Walker

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Creators:
Couch, Amanda
Description/Abstract:

Through the enactment, appropriation and subversion of the ancient ritual of extispicy, divination using the entrails, ‘Our Palaces of Intestines’ explores the theme of Queering Ritual by enacting ideas of interconnectedness, and otherness, a ‘transactional mingling of organism and environment’ (Shannon Sullivan, 2015).

At the centre is a large raised pie, a kind of sacrificial body. The audience is engaged in a communal breathing exercise. Hands are held on their belly which follows its inflation and deflation as the breath is channelled into the torso. There is an extispicy through the cutting of an ‘opening into the invisible world’ of the pie (Jeremy Naydler, 2009), to reveal a labyrinthine sausage, the ‘palace of the intestines’, which is examined/read, through the counting of its convolutions, tracing and drawing the revealed form, and a procession through the audience of the sausage against the body. Finally there is an inspection of the ruins.

Item Type:
Art/Design Item
Date:
4 November 2017
Material:
Pie with lard, flour, potatoes, pork sausage, linen cloth, knife, linen dress, charoal, egg timer
Measurements or Duration:
10 minutes
Locations / Venues:
Location
From Date
To Date
Queering Ritual, York St John University, York, UK
4 November 2017
Projects or Series:
Extispicy in the Everyday
Additional Information:

Other outputs relating to this entry:

• Solo exhibition: ‘Extispicy in the Everyday’ at Lewis Elton Gallery, University of Surrey, July 2018.

• Participatory performance: ‘Our Palace of the Intestines’ at University of Surrey, July 2018.

The above will be part of a symposium organised by Dr. Adam Alston (University of Surrey), ‘Digesting Ritual: Food, Waste and the Body’ and kicks off a collaborative working relationship around ideas of decadence within performance practices.

• Jointly authored journal paper with Dr. Adam Alston Autumn/winter 2018.

• ‘Extispicy in the Everyday: An Art Project-in-Progress’ journal article, words and image, in ‘Food Feminism Fermentation’ issue of CuiZine: The Journal of Canadian Food Cultures / Revue des cultures culinaires au Canada. A fully open access e-journal published by McGill Library, double-blind peer review, forthcoming 2018.

Schools:
School of Fine Art, Crafts & Photography
Related URLs:
Depositing User:
Miss Amanda Couch
Date Deposited:
18 Jan 2018 11:20
Last Modified:
04 Mar 2022 04:30
Couch, Amanda:
ORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8344-9668
Art/Design Categories:
Performance
URI:
https://research.uca.ac.uk/id/eprint/4279

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