1982, Espace DBD, Los Angeles, California (premiere)

In This Is My Body, Cheri Gaulke explores themes of female sexuality, religious authority, and personal identity through an evocative performance. Set against five Medieval-inspired wooden shelves and a rustic ladder, the performance unfolds as a series of wall-sized slide tableaux that evoke illuminated manuscripts, guiding the audience through visual and symbolic narratives that address societal and historical attitudes toward women.

Each tableau reflects a transformation, beginning with pre-Christian and Christian symbols like the serpent and the tree, associated with wisdom and sexuality. Gaulke layers these symbols with audio excerpts, including letters written to her father, a minister, addressing themes of sexuality and religious conflict. These letters, interwoven with feminist and patriarchal texts, form a compelling soundtrack that represents the tension between personal identity and inherited beliefs.

In the First Tableau, a lush tree is projected, with Gaulke moving through its branches to the sound of matrilineal Tuareg voices. The Second Tableau projects The Original Sin, with Gaulke embodying Eve, sensually eating an apple in an act that symbolizes sexual exploration. Each subsequent tableau intensifies, from a depiction of communion in a church setting to a haunting portrayal of witch trials and crucifixion, mirroring the historical oppression of women’s bodies and voices.

The Interlude introduces a reading of The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein, which Gaulke uses to illustrate humanity’s exploitative relationship with nature, paralleling the treatment of women. This is followed by powerful imagery, including woodcuts of burnings and hangings, accompanied by Billie Holiday’s Strange Fruit, highlighting racial and gendered violence.

As the piece reaches its climax, Gaulke ascends a ladder, embodying Christ on the cross, accompanied by Penderecki’s The Entombment of Christ. A final tableau portrays Botticelli’s Pietà, with Gaulke receiving a golden anointment as a transformed, adorned snake figure. She dances in amber and green light, celebrating her autonomy as the music fades, symbolizing release from patriarchal constraints.

This Is My Body is a provocative exploration of self, society, and spirituality, blending symbolism and performance to challenge historical narratives and reimagine the female body as a site of power and transformation.

Additional venues: 1983, Franklin Furnace, New York, New York; Artemisia Gallery, Chicago, Illinois; WARM Gallery, Minneapolis, Minnesota ; Church in Ocean Park, Santa Monica, California