States of Invention: Disorientation and Parangolé
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Date
2020-09-24
Authors
Maher, Liam
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Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
The complexity of Hélio Oiticica’s Parangolés poses a challenge to art historians. The multiplicity of the Parangolés’ iterations coupled with their unclear history make them hard to define, and consequently hard to put in dialogue with other aesthetic practices. As a performance rooted in improvisation, Parangolé is mutable and morphological in its methodologies. They are performances of queerness, experiments in how queerness is activated as a mode of inquiry. To inhabit queer space in these ways is to explore methods for combatting injustice, conditioning, and complacency. Using Hélio Oiticica’s words, Parangolés initiate a “state of invention” that turns viewers into co-creators, participators who collectively watch and wear Parangolé objects as a means towards queer ends.
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Keywords
Improvisation, Oiticica, Parangolé, Performance art, Phenomenology, Queer