“Its Teeth in His Body, Out of 60 Dogs” studies how visual resignification, reassemblage and
the process of cut-up intersect in profound ways with queer theory and gender theory. The main
theoretical underpinning of my project is Rosalind Krauss’ concept of the visual index where any
reproduced image’s inherent message can be resignified or reactivated when it is placed next to
other visual referents. I am interested in how the queer artist’s process of selection, cut-up and
resignification can create a unique identity outside of received institutional codifications and
stereotypes as described by Michel Foucault and Judith Butler. This identity embodies Lee
Edelman’s concept of queer “jouissance,” when the queer overwhelms or cut-ups these cultural
assemblages by creating an intervention that involves pure enjoyment or eroticism. This process
of externalizing jouissance through cut-up will articulate how these disparate materials can be
reassembled into a distinctly queer identity.

• http://projectshape.com/