Rest. Otherwise known as repose, otherwise known as freedom from labour, otherwise known as a state of motionlessness or a bodily state characterized by minimal function(s). To speak on rest implies the antithetical—unrest. This biennium of unrest we have been living through most notably, is beginning to unveil cracks in our society that are spreading beyond repair. We are seemingly drifting farther and farther apart as we need now more than ever, to be close. As we seek the global immunity, Paul B. Preciado speaks of in his essay, Learning From The Virus we only seem to stretch the biopolitical hierarchy, and like he notes, segregate the immunized and the de-munized in a search for unified protection. Providing a pseudo-sovereignty for whomever the top, in charge of the community, decides is worthy and human-enough to protect. “The management of epidemics stages an idea of community, reveals a society’s immunitary fantasies, and exposes sovereignty’s dreams of omnipotence—and its impotence.” [Learning From The Virus]. As Preciado dissects horizontal versus vertical power, many other forms of segregation are unveiled to the reader: structural racism, systemic inequality, and historic displacement that are woven through every preceding pandemic, including the current one. These titles, or moreover, “genres for life” such as Lauren Berlant puts it in her book, Cruel Optimism won’t necessarily ever give us the ending that we deserve (the "happy ending"), no matter how hard we work, and how closely we follow the orders given to us. What we get in return is a sort of manic hope, a political pacifier. “In the domain of the individual body, different sicknesses materialize the obsessions that dominate bio- and necro-politics in a given period.” [LFTV] In Preciado’s case, he is particularly referring to epidemics, such as Coronavirus, where our bodies are now more than ever—political. While now openly and broadly, society is subjecting bodies to systemic regimes, this has been going on for those racialized, genderized, displaced, and disabled for much longer. For some, their bodies have always been political. Society is now, just not only seeing but experiencing it as a whole. In Mia’s article, Access Intimacy, she speaks on her experiences as a queer, physically disabled woman of colour and adoptee through acts of self-coined, "access intimacy(s)" as the breaking down of physical/mental/emotional borders for needs to be accepted and met. “Access intimacy is not charity, resentfulness enacted, intimidation, a humiliating trade for survival or an ego boost” Says Mia. Access is care. Protection. Immunity. Community. These words shouldn’t form power relations between individuals, but they do. In, Other Forms of Conviviality, McArthur and Zavitsanos meditate on Marx and his notion that “gestures of intimate inclusion are regularly used to make violence appear as equitable exchange.” There is a constant search for labour that does not rely on exchange— such as the access intimacy Mia speaks on, that does not rely on reciprocation or expectation. There is a search for solidarity. To contrast an earlier point, it can also be said that different art materializes and corresponds to current politics and the public sphere. We can see this materialization occur with works such as, Untitled (billboard of an empty bed) and “Untitled” (Portrait of Ross in L.A.) by Felix Gonzalez-Torres. With his personal works, he offers up parts of his intimate self and life, allowing for his identity to become political in this space. By using representations of the body such as a bed, which implies a place for the body to rest, or pieces of candy as a metaphorical measure of bodily weight, Felix offers emotionally charged mediations on the politics of body, identity and sexuality in society. In, Black Power Naps/Siestas Negras, we see the literal use of body as art as statement to address the "sleep gap" attributed to forms of institutional racism. These artworks create a sense of access in the sense that they offer space, understanding and address current politics. Furthermore, if we look at Free People’s Medicine Clinic and Simone Leigh’s, The Waiting Room, we see Protection. Immunity. Community. Solidarity. What is relevant and what is needed. Leigh’s exhibit pays homage to the late Ermin-Elizabeth Green who died in a care centre hospital because of a lack of the before mentioned. She was denied the care and safety she deserved. Leigh’s exhibit further expands ideas of medicine and healing by incorporating alternatives such as herbalism, dance, holistic knowledge courses and community wellness lectures. This is a community space to heal and learn. Similarly to the Free People’s Medical Clinic, which offer alternative healing modalities which donor the work of The Black Panthers. There is a strong contrast visible here, to how these groups of women and artists have provided immunity and offered community, versus how society has gone about providing their notions of sovereignty and inclusion. There is a strong detachment, from us and the those in "power". If they cannot know us—how can they help us.
To pull from one of the speaker’s in the Free People's Medicine Clinic, “The more in touch we are with ourselves, the more we know what we need to heal us.”
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