The Textuality of the Body: Orlan's Performance as Subversive Act

Abstract

In this paper, I argue that the performance artist Orlan uses feminist tactics of subversion in her presentation of the body as art. I enter the feminist debate over Orlan's work to indicate that the critics who consider the history of performance art produce more fecund discourse. At the same time, I encourage more discussion over the racial dimensions of Orlan's art, which I describe as de-colonizing her body's representation.