A core component of CSREA's mission is supporting faculty and advanced students in the development of cutting-edge, collaborative intellectual work. Toward that end, the WITAN series provides a supportive space for faculty and graduates to test ideas in recently published works and work in progress.
NOVEMBER 1, 2021 | 12-1PM
BREAKING DOWN, BREAKING TOGETHER:
Xandra Ibarra’s Nude Laughing and the Ethics of Encounter
IVÁN RAMOS
Assistant Professor of Theatre Arts and Performance Studies
Using Latina artist Xandra Ibarra’s ongoing performance piece Nude Laughing, this essay suggests that to face the body of another subject laughing is to face the uneasy reality of encounter. In the piece, Ibarra emerges mostly naked, wearing nothing but a plastic breastplate and a pair of yellow high heels, while dragging a large nylon bag containing various accouterments of white femininity like ballet slippers, pearls, and other objects. The majority of the piece consists of Ibarra breaking onto a manic fit of laughter that goes on for several minutes.
Ultimately, Ramos argues that to encounter an/other’s body laughing, especially across difference, rather than an impasse, might provide a radical possibility to engage with a feminist and queer ethics of encounter.