Embodying Memory: Intersections Between Sri Lankan Performance Art and Prosthetic Memory

Abstract

In positing that memories acquired through visual media can impact subjectivity and alter worldview, prosthetic memory relies on an individual’s ability to build connections with the experiences of another. As an art form that foregrounds the body and relies on visuality to develop spectatorship as an affective, relational process, performance art lends itself to being analysed as a means of prosthetic memory. This article engages with three performances by the Sri Lankan performance artist Bandu Manamperi to address the interpretive intersection of the two fields, drawing on Memory Studies, Performance Studies and the Kristevan abject. Analysing interview data and photographic documentation of the performances, I explore how the affective links built through performance contribute to the creation of empathetic, relational understandings of the performing body, especially when the body presents as a violated or abject entity, and how space and cultural memory frame performance and guide viewing. I conclude that as a visceral signifier and carrier of personal memory in performance art, the body interacts with audiences’ experiential archives to impact subjectivity and influence worldview, thereby suggesting that analysing performance art reinforces and extends the tenets of Landsberg’s theories and that prosthetic memory merits further scholarship in relation to the visual arts.