They give evidence: bodies, borders and the disappeared

In this essay I explore certain relations between bodies and borders as threshold spaces marking both separation and connection, and functioning as the bearers of political meanings. My title refers to Dadang Christanto's installation 'They Give Evidence', a series of standing, naked...

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Main Author: Perera, Suvendrini
Format: Journal Article
Published: Routledge 2006
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/32223
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author Perera, Suvendrini
author_facet Perera, Suvendrini
author_sort Perera, Suvendrini
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description In this essay I explore certain relations between bodies and borders as threshold spaces marking both separation and connection, and functioning as the bearers of political meanings. My title refers to Dadang Christanto's installation 'They Give Evidence', a series of standing, naked figures, bearing in their outstretched arms the remnants of burnings, drownings, beatings and other mutilations that leave their subjects stripped of any markers of identity. These nameless bodies, an image of contemporary political violence, invite exploration of the relations between the bodies of the dead and the living, between practices of bearing witness and giving evidence. Beginning with the disappeared of the SIEV X sinking, euphemistically referred to in the recent Senate Inquiry as 'A Certain Maritime Incident', this essay examines ways in which nameless bodies of the dead and disappeared are made present in contemporary Australia as evidence, as political bodies
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-322232017-09-13T15:55:53Z They give evidence: bodies, borders and the disappeared Perera, Suvendrini In this essay I explore certain relations between bodies and borders as threshold spaces marking both separation and connection, and functioning as the bearers of political meanings. My title refers to Dadang Christanto's installation 'They Give Evidence', a series of standing, naked figures, bearing in their outstretched arms the remnants of burnings, drownings, beatings and other mutilations that leave their subjects stripped of any markers of identity. These nameless bodies, an image of contemporary political violence, invite exploration of the relations between the bodies of the dead and the living, between practices of bearing witness and giving evidence. Beginning with the disappeared of the SIEV X sinking, euphemistically referred to in the recent Senate Inquiry as 'A Certain Maritime Incident', this essay examines ways in which nameless bodies of the dead and disappeared are made present in contemporary Australia as evidence, as political bodies 2006 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/32223 10.1080/13504630601030859 Routledge restricted
spellingShingle Perera, Suvendrini
They give evidence: bodies, borders and the disappeared
title They give evidence: bodies, borders and the disappeared
title_full They give evidence: bodies, borders and the disappeared
title_fullStr They give evidence: bodies, borders and the disappeared
title_full_unstemmed They give evidence: bodies, borders and the disappeared
title_short They give evidence: bodies, borders and the disappeared
title_sort they give evidence: bodies, borders and the disappeared
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/32223