The work contests the division between representation and the live active body. Starkey develops forms that do not follow logical criteria, but are based on subjective associations and formal parallels, which aim to incite the viewer to make new personal associations. Starkey explores her female position and marked white body as an active premises exposing structures and devices usually hidden in medium and subject matter. With a focus on 18th century paintings, through live actions historical associations created through semiotics/ideologies are ruptured.
Live art is key to Starkey’s practice as the ritual is live, there are new possibilities in the vulnerability of such acts that cannot be ‘corrected’, and these possibilities offer new openings for both the viewer and herself. Starkey does not consider the viewer as passive but also a receipt of research and while simultaneously a co-producer. While work is made in the presence of other people and while in the same space, even a person seemingly standing still communicates and affects the performance’s dynamics and conversation. For me, live acts amongst other living breathing bodies is unpredictable and offers evolutionary knowledge sharing, creating a space for live discovery.
