Up to and Including Her Limits (1973 1976) Carolee Schneemann

Up To And Incuding Her Limits gathers together documentation of a performance in which Schneemann, alternately clothed and unclothed, draws on the walls and floors of an enclosure, sometimes while she is in a tree surgeon’s harness. Sometimes her eyes are closed as she draws, and sometimes she draws with an open-eyed deliberation. The pace of her drawing alternately slows down and speeds up. The wall drawings are clearly not meant to depict anything in particular, but rather to act as a graphic record of her bodily movements. (Schneemann: “Marks referential to actions producing them – both visible and invisible, durable and non-durable.” – from Carolee Schneemann: Imagining Her Erotics, Cambridge: MIT Press 2003). In parts of the video a film projection of Schneemann playing with her cat Kitch can be seen; and Carolee can also be heard talking about her cat. The colour in the video is muted, soft and painterly.