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SEAMLINE: An Invocation of
Energy Through Tattoo
Wednesday, October IS
Hastings Art Gallery
If performance art c a n be
described as the transformation
of an action into art through
performance,
then
Julianna
Barabas is pulling it off in a most
elegant a n d ingenuous way.
She is undertaking, in twelve
monthly sessions, to m a r k ' h e r
b o d y with a tattoo which will
bisect it into front a n d back.
This "seamline" b e g a n at her
left shoulder, travelled d o w n her
arm, up the inside to the armpit,
d o w n her torso a n d leg, under
her foot...you get the picture.
The circuit wii! be c o m p l e t e
when the line has traversed the
top of her h e a d . The installment
I witnessed (#6) was called The
Bridge, because it was the one in
which the seam crossed from one
side of her body to the other via a
tapeworm-like spiral design over
her pubic bone.
The cosy storefront gallery
where it took place was an island
of light a n d warmth in the rainy
Strathcona night a n d attendees were w e l c o m e d like guests
w h o ' d p o p p e d 'round for dinner.
Undercutting the casual ambie n c e like a sinister reminder of
why w e h a d come, was a whitesheeted tattooist's c o u c h in the
centre of the room. Barabas'
cheerful trepidation was obviously genuine—she h a d already
endured five sessions of this on
some excruciatingly tender parts
of her body—and she responded
honestly to the ensuing pain, neither performing it, nor attempting
to stare it d o w n . (At one point,
she commented that w e ought to
have as many different words for
pain's nuances as Eskimos d o
for snow.) Inviting friends a n d
strangers to w a t c h seemed less
like a desire to perform than to
d e e p e n her own psychological
engagement.
In many ways, the event h a d
the atmosphere of a home b i r t h -

right d o w n to the snacks a n d
libations, supportive presence of
mates, photo documentation,
tattoo artist-as-midwife a n d , of
course, the spread e a g i e d principal piayer whose "caretaker"
c o a c h e d a n d comforted her
throughout the process.- In fact,
the most formal element was
Gretchen Eisler's live a c c o m p a niment on viola. A iighthearted
a n d humourous beginning with
Beethoven's Ode to Joy soon
g a v e way to more lugubrious
bowing a n d squeaking which
battled with the relentless buzzing of the tattoo gun. it was an
interesting sonic effect, but didn't
feel terribly connected with what
was happening on the couch.
Body modification is no
stranger to performance art,
but whereas it's often selfadministered,
confrontational
a n d statement-driven (as in the
work of Yugoslavia's Marina
Abrimovic), it's the goal in itself
for Barabas. Complex
and
deeply personal as her need for
the tattoo might be, she would
only say that "conceptually, the
line has always been there. It was
just a matter of making it visible."
In this sense, seamline is more
akin to the d e c a d e - l o n g plastic
surgery project of French artist
Orlan. Though enormously more
radical (and "performed" only on
film), Orlan's undertaking was, in
essence, very goal-directed a n d
also involved a practitioner (in
this case, surgeon-as-artist).
For an audience, seamline
c a n fascinate, intrigue a n d even
repel, but its most enduring value
might be as metaphor—our goals
a n d desires c a n d e m a n d much
of us as we try to realize them.
The seam lengthens at 8pm
on November 19 (478 Union
Street) as part of LIVE Biennial of
Performance Art.

THE PLUGHOLE
What happens in a world where
everything has b e c o m e cornmodified, including human interaction? One possible answer lies
in the title of a play which opens
here later this month. Shopping
and Fucking has been a massive
hit in Europe, New York a n d playwright Mark Ravenhill's native UK,
where it premiered back in 1996.
Interestingly enough, it's also
been huge in Russia, where western-style capitalism charged in a
few seconds after the collapse of
the Soviet empire.
Pi Theatre's Del Surjik, who
co-directs the piece with Diane
Brown of Ruby Slippers, knows
that Vancouver's theatre scene
c a n be isolated a n d stresses the
importance of producing works
that have been rocking audiences elsewhere on the planet.
Tracking three Londoners as they
look for a home a n d family in a
world m a d e vacuous a n d abrasive by consumerism, the play
has been called "witty, shocking,
poetic" a n d "the vanguard of
the New British Theatre."
This production also has some
genre-bending innovations. DJ
Jason White—aka Honey B e e will mix the music a n d soundscape live, while David Roberts'
set design is so hot that Brown
a n d Surjik went stumm when
asked about it ("It's a secret.
It's never been d o n e before").
Brown did want you to know,
however, that w e c a n drink in our
seats a n d lig around afterwards.
All told, it sounds like this one has
a lot more going for it than just a
catchy name. •
Runs November 21-December 6
at Performace Works on Granville
Island. Tkts and Info: 604-2570366.