In lizard years I was 52 : wearing, writing, becoming other : [an exegesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand]

Abstract

No abstract: Excerpt from introduction:

"For three months between the Thursday that was the 29th of May and the 1st of September 2014, I went about my usual activities dressed as a lizard. I did not have a lizard’s tail or claws, only scales. I wore a jumpsuit I had sewn all over in sequins, transforming my surface. Sometimes my appearance was likened to a fish, or mermaid. The creature appeared indeterminate, but a fantasy of being lizard occupied my thoughts. As lizard I worked my part-time job at a café. Went to classes at university. Walked around the city. Every day for three months it was my dress, both costume, and uniform. It was washed once a week and repaired as required. It was not used to sleep in, but was worn everywhere else. At night it hung on two coat-hooks on the back of my bedroom door. The wearing of it cast coloured reflections over my everyday routine. Inhabiting an idea of a creature very different from human serves as a catalyst for becoming-other, a process that entails a deterritorialisation of the self, which is the undoing of both subjectivity and signification. The desire to become-other engages Derrida’s (2006) claim that ‘the human is the animal at unease with itself.’"