Tag: self-injury

Gina Pane, Psyché [Psyche], 1974

“The word psyche has two meanings; firstly, the human soul, and secondly, from Greek mythology, the name of the ravishingly beautiful daughter of the King of Crete, who is always portrayed with butterfly wings and is worshipped by Eros. A psyché is a cheval glass; a full-length swivelling mirror.

In the tape Psyche (in some texts it is referred to as Psyché), Pane is inspecting herself in a large mirror (a psyché?), and is using make-up to draw an image of her face on that mirror. With a razor blade, she cuts herself just below her eyebrows. Then she goes and stands against a grid, holding a bunch of downy feathers in her hands. With the razor blade, she cuts a cross in the skin around her navel. Between these acts of self-mutilation, she plays with tenni balls, licks her breasts and caresses her body with the feathers. However, these moments never last long. Ritual torture always plays the lead in this ceremony of cleansing. In Psyche, the artist proves herself to be as vulnerable as the mythological King’s daughter with her butterfly wings.”

—LIMA

Gina Pane, Action: Discours mou et mat, 1975, Courtesy of Frac Lorraine – Metz, © ADAGP Paris, © VEGAP, Leon, 2015-16

“In order to enter the performance space, visitors first had to sidestep a motorcycle, that blocked the entrance. In the room several objects had been placed as the scenery of the forthcoming performance: a safety helmet, boxing gloves, knuckledusters, a gold painted golf ball and razor blade, red and white roses plus a naked woman whose back had been decorated with blue stars.The first scene lasted 15 minutes. Pane entered the performance space, dressed in white pants, a white blouse and high heels of the same colour. She wore sunglasses and had drawn blue stars on her left arm and hand. On the floor had been placed two mirrors, with sheets of glass on top. On the right mirror (from Pane’s point of view) stars had been drawn and the word ‘aliénation’ had been written on the glass. The left mirror was blank, but on the sheet of glass on top the portrait of a person wearing shades had been drawn. The sunglasses reflected a mill and a field of tulips. Pane kneeled down behind the mirrors and played two cymbals of cardboard, with cotton wool on the insides. After this silent concert several slides were projected. During the second scene of five minutes Pane smashed the sheets of glass with her fists.The next ten minutes Pane sat down on a stool, playing tennis with a ball that hung from the ceiling. She hit the ball with a racket and stopped it with her forehead.During the fourth scene Pane crawled to the shattered sheets of glass to hit them once again, meanwhile gasping into a microphone.For scene five, that also took ten minutes, Pane cut a vertical incision in her upper and under lip with a razor blade.During the final scene, Pane laid down next to the naked woman and looked at the ceiling through binoculars. Meanwhile music by Brahms was played in slow-motion and some slides were shown.”

–De Appel