Jill Orr: Ritual, Rites of Passage & Neuroanatomy

Abstract

Jill Orr began her performance 'Map of Transition' (1978/79) curled up under rice paper sheets, emerging to put on mask and costume prior to adopting frenzied, rhythmic movements, later removing the costume. She took seeds, plants and soil and arranged them in a circle on the rice paper, watered them and departed. Discussing this work, Anne Marsh's 'Body and Self' (1993) emphasise the "political-ecological" connection "between ritual and the natural environment" in Orr's 'arte povera' "binding techniques" and that it would be a mistake to interpret it "within the landscape tradition".