Foreword:
ART CARRIES POWER
At art academies we are preached 'Art matters' and ' The world needs art' so I joined the choir:
Art matters !
Art matters !
Art matters !
Art matters !
I could feel it in my heart, but if I were chanting in a demonstration and a journalist would come up to me and ask me, “Yes, but why does it matter?” I would not have a clear answer.
I use art as a tool. It is a way to process, to cope and to search and understand, driven by curiosity. Sometimes I am a detective, looking for answers, sometimes I am my own therapist or shamanistic healer and sometimes a frustrated teenager that just needs to get it all out of
the system.
The moment I opened up the art world and allowed the lines between personal life and work to blur, I started to be able to not just feel, but to understand why art matters. The moment you allow art to break through the bubble and immerse into our reality, it starts to show up in every single nook and cranny. Medicine, science, nature, religion, psychology….
ART MATTERS
ART MATTERS
ART MATTERS
ART MATTERS
Artists are believers and critical thinkers. We are science and religion. We are naive and full of knowledge; creativity is our superpower. But us artists must not forget that for art to matter to the general public we have to expand and break down the walls. Only because your art is exhibited in a public space does not mean it is accessible.
When recreating the performance-piece "The Artist Is Present" from Marina Abramovic, I could feel a connection to strangers sitting across from me so deep, that it could create world peace. Only a few people where bold and patient enough to sit down for at least two minutes to engage in eye contact. The once that stayed, I could connect with as if our souls knew each other, words became irrelevant. Suddenly communication through speaking seemed like an armour created through words. Communication through eye contact is also used in certain tribes as conflict resolution, instead of physical or oral communication the two fronts engage in peaceful and silent eye contact and can therefore evade unnecessary harm.
Diagnosis: Acute case of intimacy.
The concept of the work, "The Artist is Present " is accessible to all because it is about basic human contact and emotion. The issue is the context it is presented in, and how. The work was shown in MoMA in New York, one of the most prestigious exhibition spaces. Marina Abramovic, a Popstar of the art world, sitting in the centre in a red gala dress.
Presenting the work in a public space and positioning multiple chairs for people to engage with each other, could create more accessibility and detach the work from the notion of the artist as genius or Rock star.
For art to have impact on your life, you must be open, present, sober and bold. Go to exhibitions alone, take the whole day off. You are not shopping or sightseeing, and you do not need to see it all. Stress and our minds being numbed by social media are a big risk factor, it takes our patience and presence that we need to absorb life.
A few years ago, I went to the exhibition "Max Beckmann - The World as a Stage". The whole museum was empty, I had the entire day time to take it all in, and after a while I stranded on a bench in front of the triptych "Actor". Till this day, I cannot comprehend what exactly happened, I sat there and just started crying, not shedding a few lonely tears, but weeping heavily, overwhelmed by a tirade of emotions.
When engaging with art, attempting to focus on grasping and understanding it, often leads to frustration and neglect. This is why it is important as artist to bring a bit of your personal background and emotion into the work. Emotion is a universal language and keeps the work from slithering into elitism. It gives the visitor an opening into your work and sparks curiosity so that you can take in the work with your heart, not your brain. Take the time to get to know the artwork, go on a real date, no tinder swiping. If you still do not feel a connection, that is okay, the art world is so diverse, there is something for everyone.
Introduction :
KEEPING UP WITH THE HEALTHY PEOPLE
I suffer from rheumatoid arthritis since I am three years old, and it can feel like living in an abusive relationship. The pain, the dependence, the addiction and the isolation.
In 2019 it had gotten so bad that I was not able to walk anymore. After one and a half year of operation, radio-active treatment and rehabilitation, I got back what you call “quality of life” – even going to the supermarket was a highlight.
When you live with illness, it affects every part of your life, and you start to envy the “healthy people”. To you they are the super-rich, they are that neighbour with the pool and the hot girlfriend while you live in a wooden shed with no central heating.
The disabled don’t watch "Keeping Up with the Kardashians " because we are too busy keeping up with the healthy people.
Even though the illness is part of my everyday life, it took me 4 years at the art academy until I was daring to create art around my chronic illness, and it took an additional year for me to get to the statement ART IS MEDICINE.
Yes, art should be open for the public and not just used as your own personal diary, but if you neglect your own interest, the topics that are close to your heart, you might as well stop your art practice. It is what drives you. Trying desperately to be contemporary and to stay relevant comes out of dependence, the dependence on money, the public and the entire art world. It is dishonest and not healthy for your artist practice, just like the earning for fame.
Let me be your therapist for a moment and tell you to open up your diary and put some of those pages into your artwork, just one or two, and repeat after me:
It is okay to make art for myself
It is okay to make art for myself
It is okay to make art for myself
It is okay to make art for myself
Often artworks about illness and disability are conceived as self-pity or activist art focused on personal shortcomings. Illness can be a subject without pointing towards the artists need to self-heal or criticize society. For me, my works are often linked to dependence, so works about my father are not rooted in daddy issues and works about my illness not in self-pity.
All of us are dependent in one way or another, that is why one of the biggest crimes in history is the privatisation of water. Already the ownership of land and other beings is outrageous. Even the air we share is being sold for consumption. In polluted Asian Cities the new hit is buying bottled up air from the Alps.
LILLY
About one year ago, on June the fourth, I was being swallowed up by the darkness and loosing hope, after a while, a little light appeared. This light is my new companion.
Her name is Lilly.
She is a small pink pill and has her name written on the front side in cursive letters, she is my new medication, the doctors’ favourite. I was surprised that such a little, pretty and innocent looking pill was supposed to be my solution. After picking up the new and celebrated rheumatoid arthritis medication, I was in desperation for it to work. I was sitting on my bed, holding her in my hand, and out of intuition I started talking to her, asking:
“Would you like to be my friend?”
At night when the pain was particularly bad, I would sing lullabies to myself, as the warm hearted and loving Texas mom Lilly.
The treatment turned out to be successful and a few months later I was able to continue my artist practice and start Project Lilly.
I was investigating her and learning about the past relationships I have had with my previous medications. Throughout the year Lilly became my friend, my alter ego, my escape, my artwork, my personal warrior and much more. I took her into the art world with me, searching for her place to be and realized that I have intuitively used Lilly as my placebo.
ART IS............................................PLACEBO..............................................IS MEDICINE
Often with autoimmune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, the body can start to build anti bodies against the medication, and the medical treatment needs to be adjusted.(1) With me it is the case that medications have, in the past, stopped working after a short amount of time. That led to the belief and fear that the new medication will stop working soon as well.
A positive mindset and openness towards the new treatment from patient and doctor are essential in the success of treatment.(2,3) In the past I have never wanted new treatment, feared it, and rejected it knowing how toxic and harsh the medication is. The inviting design of the Pill and the urge to break the cycle of illness and continuous search for new medication, led me to a different approach. To fully embrace Lilly in all aspects of my life. This also made the link between my life and my art much stronger. I am in the process of learning that we, the patients, have much more influence than I presumed. We can influence our treatment and therefore well-being by either leaning into the placebo-, or the nocebo effect.
The nocebo-effect is the influence of a negative mindset related to new treatment or medication, it has come to light that reading the side effects on the medications package insert, or your doctor mentioning them when prescribing new medications, can lead to stronger side effects. As well as the treatment working less well, when the patient has negative associations with it, for example the common knowledge of nausea due to chemotherapy or the notion of stress being bad for you.(4)
With taking Baricitinib (Lilly), a real rheumatoid arthritis medication, from the medical world into the art world, I was able to boost my own personalized placebo. Using my art instead of the doctor’s office, as my placebo setting of choice. The doctor is just the setting, the vessel, the manifestation of reality.
The placebo treatment works so well because in our culture the doctors are our healers, we have learned and embodied the reality of healing through modern medicine.
I am interested in the possibility of being your own healer, to use art not just for your mental, but for your physical health without the dependence on harsh medications.
A part of the detailed and long trial phases of new medication entails comparing the active substance of the new medication against the placebo. If the active substance is more successful than the placebo effect, it can be put on the market. In this case the success of the placebo effect was lower than the success of the active substance, but once the medication is on the market, the placebo effect does not just disappear, it is still part of the function.
All factors surrounding treatment, influence the success of the placebo effect. The mindset and interaction of the patient and doctor, the size, colour, shape and price of the medication and the cognitive thinking patters based on the patients past experiences.
Research showed that the capsules work better than pills, bigger sizes work better than the small ones and the more expensive ones have greater success than the cheap ones.(5) Colour plays a big factor too, for example red works best against pain and blue against anxiety.(6) They have even found out, that it is influenced by culture. In Italy blue triggers emotions because of the colours of the national soccer team, therefore blue does not work against anxiety, in contrary.
PATIENT CASE
example Nr. 84331
Gena Kalina Schneider
Born: 03.01.1996
Address: Ehrenbeck Str. 52 23760 Hamburg
Anamneses:
General: no fever, weight stable low, no B-symptoms
Core: no shortness of breath upon exertion, no orthopnoea,
no other decompensation complaints, no palpitations or painful chest
Rheumatic inflammation: pain in left knee, right knee, jaw, sporadically hips and elbow left
CNS: no complaints
Physical examination:
General: pale face colour, thin posture, small stature, antalgic walking pattern
Measurements: 48.0 kg (BMI 17,9kg/m2), height 1.62m
Extremities: slim legs, normal colour, no oedema, no painful calf’s
Mindset Cognitive thinking patterns/past experiences:
Patients’ mindset has improved after two years of cognitive behavioural therapy, quote patient: “I have learned to trust the possibility of life turning out good”. Rehabilitation phase of arthroscopy right knee and RSO were successful.
Treatment duration in the past occurs to be short (see medical history and medications, fax from last week)
Interaction of patient and doctor:
Current treatment unsuccessful, Patient complains of strong pain and immobility. Patient trusts new treatment plan of Dr. med. Ulrike Schnoor and will continue with MTX injections,15mg and start Olumiant, 4mg promptly.
Addendum, 20.06.2020
Treatment highly successful! Higher mobility, full range of motion of operated and non-operated knee. Patient has no complaints of pain or side effects.
New treatment:
Baricitinib 4mg, brand name: Olumiant,
pharma company: Lilly
Size: small
Colour: light pink
Shape: round
Price: €4.078,46
Now that we know that the placebo effect works and how to implement it, there is still a problem. After the trial period, the patients in the placebo test group run out of medication. After great success with the placebo, they are dependent on it, but cannot get a prescription for more after the trial has ended. Technically the treatment is non-existent. Placebo does not go on the market because what they would be selling is empty shells containing trickery and lies profiting off of the desperation of the ill through manipulation.
When I got infected with Covid-19 I started looking into the Pharma Company Lilly and was able to follow the journey of doctors world-wide testing out different medications and discovering that our little hero “Lilly” is now used in many hospitals in combination with the anti-viral medication remdesivir for serious Covid-19 cases.(7) Reading those articles sparked my interest in the medical field and I started to read more research about the placebo-effect.
I found out that what I have been doing intuitively through my art, could in fact, be based on the research of PhD Alia Crum at Yale University, focused on the utilization the placebo effect.(8)
In placebo surgery, modern doctors perform sham procedures for clinical trials on patients that carry resemblance with ritualistic healing ceremonies. They are carefully going through every step of the surgery without actually operating. The patient gets put under general anaesthesia and while they go through all the steps of the orchestrated fake-operation, they are watching a video of the real surgery. It is absurd and nonetheless proved to be highly effective.(9–13) Years later patients are still pain free after placebo knee surgery.(14)
Rituals and shamanistic healing ceremonies connect to placebo through the practice of repetition in connection with belief, just like in the sham procedures, the participants open mindset and faith in the procedure are crucial.
ART IS................................................RITUAL..............................................IS MEDICINE
If I am anxious or lonely at night, I hold a stuffed animal. Right now, mine is a monkey from a second-hand shop. Children get so attached to their teddy bears because it is the thing that comforts them at night when they are lonely, fearful of times where they might need it and it is not there.
Sacrifice is a ritual where you offer something precious to you, to a higher power, in exchange for something you are in desperate need of. Food, peace, rain, fertility or in this case freedom. Freedom is opposing fear of loss. In cognitive behavioural therapy learning to allow loss, for example loss of control, is an important step used to help with anxiety. When you deal with irrational fears that hold you back, such as the fear of water or crowded places, there are different small or big steps that you can take during therapy to confront these fears.
You go take swimming lessons, you go to the café next door, or in my case, you let go of your cuddle buddy.
There are many ways to calm down and help with panic and anxiety, but if your fear is irrational and you can do something about, the hardest but most successful strategy is to not to walk away from the fear but towards it. In the biography of the performance artist Marina Abramovic, she talks about breaking through that wall of fear in her works to get to the other side.(15) You become to realize that the safety you are looking for is within you and that you can let go of the safety blanket.
Here the ritualistic burning comes into play. The fire eats away radically and harshly at the things you offer. Fire brings life and warmth just as much as it brings death. This is why fire is used in many rituals. Without death there is no life. There are many ancient ceremonies like the Hindu yajna, where fire is used for cleansing and sacrifice.(16) The Tiwi Aboriginals hold burning rituals where almost all possessions of the member that passed away will be burned to allow the soul of the deceased to leave.(17)
The burning helps with the slow but painful process of letting go, feeding the fire and watching the destruction. It is important in the sacrifice to choose an item that is close to your heart. That is why the sacrifice of an animal or child in ancient rituals are so impactful and gruesome.
There are many ways that you can integrate harmless healing rituals in modern life. The earth seems to be spinning faster since the invention of the internet and people are earning for ways to recharge. That is why platforms like YouTube are overflowing with video suggestions for morning and evening rituals, healing crystals and 100-hour lasagne recipes. Ritualistic practice can be very impactful if integrated well into the modern world, the problem is that outside the art world and religion, many people lost their belief in it. There is a multitude of things that exist, that we cannot explain or proof their existence yet, that does not stop them from existing.
For greater impact we must form stronger connections between art, belief and science. Residencies that combine art with technology and science are a very good start, as well as the utilization of the placebo-effect, which connects belief with modern medicine and shows the undeniable connection between our mind and our body. To come up with extraordinary solutions in science you are in need of creativity and communication. A good surgeon for example must be inventive, creative, have an eye for detail and craftsmanship in working hours long with their hands when standing in the OR. You can be an artist in many different fields.
There has been research done about the use of art classes in medical schools and it is currently being integrated in many universities in the US and UK.(18) It has become apparent that bringing those two together helps with the student’s diagnostic skills, competence in physical exam ability, empathy, teambuilding and more.(19–21) Early on in school, pupils are separated into the flakes and the nerds. The ones who love to paint, learn languages and philosophise, and the ones who are passionate about science, good in math, biology and chemistry. We must discontinue separating them and work early on with projects that combine science and art.
ART IS.................................................BELIEF...............................................IS MEDICINE
I have talked with two acquaintances that are doctors, about their experience working in the medical field as a person of faith. There are a few topics that are frequently discussed where certain religious beliefs seem to oppose medical advice. For example, abortion, circumcision and the refusal of blood transfusion. I was wondering if as a religious doctor your background might form a dilemma in connection to your medical practise.
One of the doctors I talked to is a general practitioner and strictly tries to separate personal believes and work, except in some rare circumstance like abortion and euthanasia. The young cardiologist agrees that it is best to separate the two but has a contrasting opinion when it comes to circumcision. He still adds that it is important to see prayer as an addition to medical treatment not a substitute.
The three of us agreed in the point that you need faith in life, and that it is important for both, doctor and patient. Belief and Hope are crucial, also in modern medicine. It is a powerful tool next to the medical treatment.
Greatness can only be achieved by a person of strong believes, but how strong is too strong? Elon Musk? Sigmund Freud? No matter the field, art, technology, psychology, religion. We need believers, but the stronger the believe, the greater the danger. The people who get into Isis or nationalistic movements are often people lost, with no believe, who suddenly find themselves strong because of finding something to believe in. The movement at the University in the Weimar Republic, when Bauhaus was born, was not for nothing called “Ein Tanz auf dem Vulkan” – “the dance on top of the volcano”.
Is it the believe, the power, the religion and the knowledge that is dangerous, or is it us, the humans? Do we take something beautiful and destroy it, is it the greed? Albert Einstein is celebrated for his great and crucial discoveries. We took and abused his discovery of the Atom for the invention of the Atom bomb. The key to the greatest power.
If I were to believe it is an option to live freely without any medication, am I delusional and endangering myself or is that the first step towards freedom? Can believe be so strong that it trumps science?
We tend to link our achievements to our happiness, but the road to our goal is very long compared to the duration of happiness that we feel once we reached our destination. Shortly after, we get the urge to climb up the next hill in search for happiness. Is that life? We search and search and search and at some point, we get tired of searching?
Why are we, the lucky bastards of the western civilization, dealing with so much anxiety and depression?(22)
Art and religion have been intertwined since centuries, the artist as the servant for the holy spirit. A few years ago, when visiting the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, that connection was beyond doubt to me. The creation of beauty is nothing to spite on, the urge to create something beautiful is a wonderful feeling and in contrary to many artists, I do not believe that it is empty and meaningless. Beauty has impact, it can be like a soft vail that lays over you and carries healing powers. Artists have a talent in creating beauty out of nothingness, we do it all the time with plain looking exhibition spaces, or material rests, it can give you hope.
The impact of beauty is being recognized more and more and implemented in many institutions such as hospitals. Waiting rooms with calming colours, sound and wall installations, as you can see in the oncology of the Martini Hospital in Groningen, or the hallways of the UMCG, that look more like a shopping-centre in Miami than a hospital entrance.
Already the change of the colours of the sky, either sunny and showing a bright blue, or a depressing grey tone can influence our mood immensely.
ART IS.............................................COLOUR................................................IS MEDICINE
Surgeons attaching a limb or transplanting certain organs stand in the operating room, stare at their work and wait in hope for it to turn pink. Pink is the colour of Life. Pink lips and cheeks represent health and youth, but it is also the first thing doctors look for at a wound or a broken limb, swelling and the skin turning pink around a wound or scar is a sign of inflammation. Skin or eyes turning yellow can be a sign of liver disease and once the limb or parts of the skin turn black there is no turning back. Black means death. It is opposing pink, the colour of life.
Colours are of great necessity, not just in art but in science. A good scientist, especially working in laboratories or biologists working in nature, must have a good eye for colour and shape to do their work correctly.
When I saw Lilly, my new rheumatoid arthritis medication, for the first time, one of the big comforting factors was the colour. The soft pink. Not intense, not intimidating. Calming and soothing. A round little pink pill. The study of form, colour and size are essential in art but often still underestimated in other professions.
My second medication, Methotrexate, is the opposite. A big injection, you can see the needle, the metal spring system and the bright yellow liquid, that you are about to inject. The perfect prop for a spine-chilling movie scene. The liquids toxic colour and the quick and loud snapping sound when injecting, add another level of discomfort. Things as simple as the design of a new medication can affect the placebo effect of your treatment and therefore the success of treatment. Art matters and is much more present in life than one suspects. It is constantly used as a tool of capitalism through advertisement, tricking your mind with psychological colour brainwash.
The installation "Mental Well " and " Shortcircuit NO.5 " by Bigert & Bergström show the contrast that I have been describing in my medication. The "Mental Well" is a soft, round and light pink carpet laying in front of the "Shortcircuit NO.5", which has created black and harsh impressions on the wall.(23) In Project Lilly the use of the soft textiles and warm pink tones play a big role in the creation of the personalized placebo. I am using the colour pink to embed myself and the viewer in healing properties.
When building parts of the stage at University, I got to talking with one of the teachers, he suffers from bad episodes of pain and because of not wanting to take too much pain medication, he intuitively tried visualizing the pain as colour. At the spot where he felt pain, he would spread imaginative blue light and it helped him calm down the pain. Our bodies often know what we need, before we do, sometimes a surreal notion appearing in our unconscious can point us to our body’s needs.
ART IS.............................................PAINTING.............................................IS MEDICINE
The idea of painting a “bad” painting horrifies me.
There are some very critical professors sitting inside my head, circling around my work and silently exchanging judgmental looks. German expressionists with brown jackets and darkness around their eyes, they have lived through the war, they know the dark side of the world and they look at my colourful paintings as if they can smell the naiveté and youthful arrogance from miles away.
It is time for some horrific paintings, I must scare them away, for a moment of piece, and shock them with bad colour choices and plain looking flower arrangements.
The moment I fell in love with painting was in Barcelona, at my first exhibition of Maria Lassnig, her self-portrait " You or Me" where she sits on a stool, looking right at you with a gun pointed at herself and the viewer. Her work has an attitude, it is wild, truthful and dark without the use of dark colours and density. She paints whatever she wants to paint, as if she is truly the only person in the world that has not lost the child in herself. In my imagination she is the crazy sister of Alice Neel and constantly starts unnecessary fights with her friend Louise Bourgeois.
When the pain and isolation got worse, I started diving into art, reading the diary of Frida Kahlo and other books about her life. I felt understood. She knows what it is like to be pain ridden and strapped to your bed. I started my own little diary with small aquarelle paintings and letters addressing Frida.
EXTRACT
15.02.2021
The painter that won’t paint
I am a painter at heart, but my hands don't seem to speak the language fluently yet, they understand most, but are a bit lazy with their vocabulary homework and struggle with the grammar. It is the brains’ fault, he is too harsh on them, they try and practice in hiding but got so scared they stopped to paint. The heart is excited, but the brain won't let the hands dance with the heart. From time to time, when there is good music, the heart overrules the brain, and the hands flow freely over the paper. When they grow up, they want to be expressionists, they try to break free since years already, but the brain just keeps on inviting visitors up into the office for discussion. Teachers, other Students, sometimes even the boyfriend, he doesn't have much expertise in this field, but somehow, he gets a vote as well.
12.03.2021
Painting comes from Pain
The colours leak over the canvass like
tears that you are shedding
Momentary relieve
The pain that is deep inside you stays
I want to live inside my colours
Find calm in a sea of blue
Cuddle up inside powder pink
Gain strength from cyan red
and energy from fiery orange.
I want to carry the happiness of bright yellow in my pocket
and love as intensely as cherry red.
05.07.2021
Letter to Frida
I am sorry that I have stopped writing and sending you paintings. Once Lilly started helping me, I simply forgot.
Have you ever been happy in your life Frida? So happy that you forgot to paint?
Do you think that I lost myself inside of Lilly, what if she leaves me? What would you have done if you could not paint, sing yourself to sleep, like me?
How are things with Diego, is he getting his aggression under control? You think that you needed him, but was he ever any good for you?
Besos, Kalina
FREEDOM AND DEPENDENCE
I have talked with my mother about the dependence on our harsh medications and she agreed that there is a link to the dependency a drug addict has, but that a very important difference is that we cannot stop the medication, there is no rehab. There is no choice but to continue.
The paradox she pointed out, is that the medication is at the same time the only thing that can give you the freedom to dance, walk, eat, live life.
To be truly free, we have to accept that we are dependent, every single one of us, on air, water, food, human connection and a multitude of other things. Many of my past works are about the relationship I have with my father, but in retrospect, it was never just about that, it was about the search for balance. Balance between freedom and dependence. The fear of losing either our safety or our freedom is a constant struggle. That struggle goes so far that we hold on to a toxic environment, relationships and even illness.
In Plato’s Cave, Socrates describes a group of people living in a cave all their life, their reality is based on shadows that are projected onto the wall. Being chained to a wall inside a cave is a pitiful reality.
“Socrates explains how the philosopher is like a prisoner who is freed from the cave and comes to understand that the shadows on the wall are actually not reality at all…However, the other inmates of the cave do not even desire to leave their prison, for they know no better life.(24)
ART IS....................................................DANCE..........................................IS MEDICINE
“.. Ich hab nur menschliche Beziehungen gesehen, oder versucht zu sehen und darüber zu sprechen. Das ist, wofür ich mich interessiere. Ich weiss auch nichts wichtigeres als das.“(25) (Pina Bausch)
This quote of Pina Bausch, about her interest in human connection and relationships is of big importance to me and it is also what connected me to the work "Ich brauche Liebe" by Nina Wijnmaalen, when I was working for her. I consider the works of Pina Bausch the bridge between dance and performance art. There is a choreography, it is presented by dancers, but you can see that the emotions triggered by the music are real, just like in performance.
In her works dance, music and performance magically melt into one.
The Body is the vessel, and the music brings out the emotions that are contained and are then translated into movement.
When creating the performance in "Project Lilly", I decided not to choreograph the striptease shown in the short film Lilly because the body knows what to do when the music starts. The heart takes over and whenever the body stiffens, it is the brain interfering. This is why we dance so much better alone at home, where we feel safe, or in a sea of other moving bodies under the influence of drugs, free to be ourselves.
We let go and allow the communication between the music and the body.
You train the movements just as how you train your hand when painting, so that the muscle memory can take over and give the brain a break. The genre of the music sets the tone on how your body will react. This only works in an environment that you feel safe in, the more often you dare to dance in different situations and locations the bigger your movements get, the shyness translates directly into the body, but with practice your safe space expands.
During dance all illness, aches and worries can fall off as if one actively shakes them off through movement, and emotional blockage frees up. Dancing has a strong connection to rituals and silent communication. You can tell stories with just your eyes or the movement of your body, and you can connect to other human beings in a more intimate way than trough verbal communication.
The most eminent connection between healing rituals and dance lays in these three key words:
RHYTHM
REPETITION
ROUTINE
That is why often in rituals music is a key component. I invite you to repeat these three words within the next days and you will notice that you can find them in many parts of your daily life.
Historically the use of rhythm, repetition and routine was used frequently in the work environment, often in connection to work songs as this excerpt of one from the Hamburg sailors:
Ick heff mol en Hamborger Veermaster sehn,
To my hooda! To my hooda!
De Masten so scheef as den Schipper sien Been,
To my hoo da hoo da ho!
...
Dat Deck weur vun Isen,
Vull Schiet uns vull Schmeer.
Dat weer de Schietgäng
Eer schönstes Pläseer.(26)
Work songs are often used for teamwork and efficiency, but in the lyrics of most songs you can see that the music is in a way a communal diary filled with pain. Many of the sailors are home sick and have to work in horrific working conditions, to sing about it out loud together, can be therapeutic and help with the feeling of isolation and frustration.
As well, in religion dance and repetition are of importance, for example the whirling of the Sufi, a form of physical meditation where mostly men in long garments turn around in circles with their eyes closed whilst listening to music and chanting as a way to connect to the divine.
In some parts of the world, for example Afrika, rhythm and dance have always been of great importance and deeply ingrained into the culture, especially in combination with the repetitive beat of drums. One could even say that Afrika is the beating heart of our planet as it carries our rhythm.(27)
THE TEASE
When a stripper starts talking to the client, they break the build-up of intimacy and creation of phantasy. The art in a striptease is working with tension build up through teasing, it is not about your body or your nakedness, it is about the art of undressing. The movements and expressions are what creates the tension, you can amplify the nakedness or almost completely take it away, as often done in performance that contain nakedness. Accessories like stockings or long gloves are there to contrast the naked skin, that is why often they work best in black, like a frame for a painting or the use of darkness to bring out other parts of a painting. It highlights the nakedness of the body parts that are unclothed. A good stripper is in charge and feels empowered through the action of undressing instead of feeling vulnerable and abused. That translates to the viewer feeling honoured to be allowed watch.
A striptease can be about sex but is mostly about taking the viewer by the hand and bringing them into another world, a magical place where the outside world does not exist. During war in France burlesque shows where continuously on television for the soldiers to watch and forget the horrific situation they are in. The play with tension is what holds attention, just as used in the narration of movies or through the music in horror movies.
I grew up in Hamburg where the famous Reeperbahn is a historical place for burlesque due to the frequent visits of the harbour by lonesome sailors. For the ones that were married and trying to stay faithful, burlesque was the perfect substitute, it creates a feeling of intimacy and connection without actual contact. Burlesque is a placebo for the soul.
For a teenager growing up in Hamburg, the Reeperbahn seems like a magical place, like Alice in Wonderland. Colourful, mysterious and if you are not careful you can get lost inside and never find your way back out. It is a rough area but for many people it is also a safe haven.
In strip clubs the act of a woman dressing out in front of men, for men, is not the issue. The slut shaming, predatory behaviour of certain men and the economic factor that drives women who come from poverty into doing a job that they are not choosing because of the passion for the art of dance or sex but because of the dependence on money and the men that come to spend that money.
Any gender should be welcomed and celebrated to strip because when you do it in the right environment, free of judgement, it feels like you are finally free and safe at the same time, you are accepted and connected intimately with the audience.
The queen of burlesque, Dita Von Teese talks enthusiastically in an interview about the fact that more and more women come to her shows. (28)
In the finished project, the short film Lilly, you can see two realities, in one I am dancing, in the other one I am sitting in a waiting room of a hospital. Those scenes represent the pieces of reality of a chronically ill person, you spent hours of your life in waiting rooms. Nervous, hopeful, bored.
The pink reality, in which I am dancing and undressing whilst I immerse myself into the pink light, is the one I have created by taking Lilly, the medication, into the artworld with me. Art adds another layer of reality, it is not an escape, it is a way of living life through art and celebrating it, Intensely and with all the layers of reality that life has to offer.
Art is medicine.
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Acknowledgments Project Lilly:
Video:
Film and editing: Nuné
Sound design and sound engineering: Can Demren
Music: Barcelona Gipsy balKan Orchestra, Jan-Roelof Bathoorn
Project assistance:
Lights: Daniel Alsina Santos
Woodwork and build up: Ben Tubben, Alwin Tubben, Joris Witvliet
Advise: Hinke-Ann Eleveld, Nina Wijnmaalen, Samantha Pellarini
Photography: Samantha Pellarini
Singing: Klaas Kloosterhuis
Thesis:
Advise and proof reading: Amaya Samper, Samantha Pellarini, Alwin Tubben
Website titel design: Michiel Teeuw
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