My Body, My Business was a group show at At The Vanishing Point in Newtown, dealing with issues relating to the body.
My contribution to the show was a video of my performance, Circumcision. It was accompanied by a small artist’s statement:
The performance piece, Circumcision, explores notions of catharsis and the possibility of its attainment. Through the work I engage with theories relating to catharsis, particularly psychoanalysis and Judaeo-Christian theology, borrowing their language and formal structure to articulate my concerns. The performance is simultaneously an articulation of my desire or need for transformative healing and an attempt to achieve a cathartic experience. In Circumcision these desires are converted into ritualised actions, mirroring the processes of sublimation and fetishisation of the body. Painting my arm signifies the physicalisation of a psychical wound in an attempt to remove it.
Tom Isaacs 