Ritual Performance Art

What is Ritual Performance Art?

RITUAL ART is a dynamic medium that involves storytelling, the body, performer, and audience. There are multiple styles of ritual art, with some aligned to sacred performance while others are aesthetic, secular, and performative in nature. 

The way I see it, there are three forms of Ritual Art: Ritual Performance Art, Ritual Performance Healing Arts, and Performance Art. All forms of Ritual Art aim to have a transformational effect on the viewer as well as the performer(s). Most significant, the body plays a key role in the performance. Sacred Ritual Art engages the sacred through the body and looks to change our perception of accepted reality.  

According to the artists of L.Y.R.A., “‘Ritual art’ is a movement in art created in the second decade of the 21st century which is best known for putting the rituals at the base of the artwork . . . The idea for its creation is a result of continuous search for a modern and conceptual vision of art that integrates the principles of rituals and ancient knowledge.”

Ritual Art is aware of itself as a performance. Much like traditional theater, Ritual Art invites you into its world, but at the same time, it does not necessarily invite you to escape yourself or your world. There is, in a sense, a meeting of worlds—the performer’s world, the world of each spectator, and the world of the performance. The result is not escapism or pure entertainment, but an opportunity to “see” the world through new eyes.

RITUAL ART PERFORMANCE

From my perspective, Ritual Art Performance exists at the intersection between theater, performance art, and spirituality. It draws on the ancient practice of religious/cultic ritual, which origins go back into the Paleolithic, as is evidenced in cave art paintings.”

Bleeding the World into Existence

In this ritual performance series (initiated in 2017), Annalisa fuses menstrual art with goddess mythologies as a modality to resacralize the female body. These performances are site-specific ritual “fragments” and are born of a certain moment and place in time. They will never been duplicated. Instead, they are the inspiration—the groundswell—for a grander vision aimed at revering the menstrual cycle as a profound manifestation of Sacred Feminine Power.

Performance #5

Re-Riting Medusa

Performed: December 12, 2022

Performance #4

The Oracle Re-members Gaia

Performed: June 4, 2019

Performance with Commentary

Published: June 19, 2020

Performance #3

She is Risen: A Revisioning of the Easter Story

March 31st, 2018

Original Performance

Published: April 6th, 2018

This ritual-performance “offering” is the third in a series of ritual theater fragments inspired by my scholastic and devotional work with Mary Magdalene, Menstruation, and the Sacred Feminine. I consider these pieces fragments because they are glimpses of creative moments in process. They are by no means finished or polished, rather they are meant to invoke the tension between the sacred and the profane.*

For this piece I decided to revision the Easter Story as a symbol of the awesome power of the Divine Feminine, in Her manifestation as Mary Magdalene and in Her body as Menstruant.

The Original Story:

In the Eastern Orthodox Christian tradition, Magdalene is the bearer of the red egg. As the story goes, Mary Magdalene headed to Rome to proclaim the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The emperor did not believe her story, so in complete confidence she told him that if the resurrection were true, the egg she held in her hand would turn red, and so it did.

The Revision:

Whereas the original tradition teaches that the light-turned-red egg is a symbol of Christ’s resurrection, I have revisioned the red on Her egg as menstrual blood, which I have painted in the form of a downward triangle, an ancient symbol of the Goddess.

Menstrual blood, typically associated in patriarchy with shame, impurity, and disgust, is reframed in my story as beautiful, natural, life-affirming, and as an empowering symbol for creation itself.

Therefore, Mary Magdalene as the bearer of the egg—a potent symbol of fertility—becomes a powerful symbol of the regeneration of the Sacred Feminine.

The text I spoke in English and Italian, “The Thunder: Perfect Mind,” is a Gnostic text believed to have to be written well before the 4th c CE. The overall voice of the text is clearly feminine and also clearly embodies the tensions of opposites within the lived experience of many women, the world over. It is, I believe, the song of Mary Magdalene.

I performed this text in Vatican Square, on the Eve of Easter, as a way to proclaim the sacredness and power of the Divine Feminine, Mary Magdalene, and the female body as the central tenant in a story that is about rebirth, regeneration, and fertility.

In the performance, Mary gives her menstrual egg as an offering of the Divine Feminine to the patriarchal powers that are embodied in the structure and history of the Vatican and Christian establishment.

Other symbols within the piece:

• Red—a color representing fertility, passion, blood, and generally associated with Mary Magdalene.

• Rose—associated with many goddesses and also a symbol for the vulva.

English translation of “The Thunder: Perfect Mind” by Hal Taussig, Jared Calaway, Maia Kotrosits, Celene Lillie, and Justin Lasser.

Italian translation by Daniela Riva

*Thank you to Marco for holding the performance container.

 AVE MAGDALENA

Performance #2

Ritual Puja for Menstruation

Performed: February 22, 2018

Original Performance

Published: June 12, 2018

This ritual performance piece is the second “offering” in a series exploring menstruation, the Divine Feminine, and Mary Magdalene.

“Puja” is a Sanskrit word meaning worship. Widely speaking, puja is a devotional worship act that is unique to various Hindu traditions. Giving/receiving puja is a sincere devotional act, generally administered in temple ceremonies by Brahmins, but can also performed at home by a member of the household. Furthermore, the honoree of puja is reserved for a god/goddess or a very important person.

In this performance piece, I have decided to use the act of puja to honor menstruation (as a process) as well as the menstrual body. This is a particularly challenging topic because in most cultures that are steeped in patriarchal institutions and androcentric mindsets, menstruation and therefore women, are considered dirty, impure, unclean, a “hindrance” to business, etc. For many women in the world, Her time of the month ushers in a time of menstrual seclusion because the act of menstruation is seen as taboo and polluting. Even in the West, menstruation is still considered shameful and is, in fact, treated much more like a disease rather than a natural and necessary bodily process.

In north India, Kamakya is a tantric goddess associated with fertility. She is often seen with Her vulva exposed while Her menstrual blood is believed to fertilize that land.

Therefore in this performance fragment, I performed puja to Kamakya to celebrate my menstrual body as well as to honor women, the female body, and menstruation as beautiful, natural, and life-affirming!

Various Symbology:

• Red—passion, fertility, menstrual blood.

• Roses—associated with goddesses and the vulva. Rose petals are often used in puja ceremonies to honor the deity.

• Rose-petaled yantra—a visual representation of the mantra chanted for the goddess.

*Animation by Kalista Skydancer

Performance #1

Blood of Her Holy Womb

Performed: January 8, 2018

Original Performance

Published: January 12, 2018

The purpose for this performative fragment is to use the methods of ritual theater to promote female physiology—in this case, menstruation—as powerful, healing and life-affirming. It is a performative fragment captured on camera, meant to honor the rawness of the present moment while using ritual performance to amplify the tension between the sacred and mundane experience.

Meaning behind the symbolism:

• Song: I used an old Christian hymn, “Are You Washed in the Blood” (by E. A. Hoffman) and modified a few of the lyrics to reflect the life-affirming power inherent to the Divine Feminine as well as human women.

• Location: I performed this fragment in the hills of Ventura, CA, shortly after the Thomas Fires. For the purpose of this piece, I have interpreted these hills as the mythological wasteland, barren and lifeless.

• Menstrual Blood can symbolize cleansing, purification, fecundity, and regeneration. In some cultures, whether celebrating the menses of a goddess or of a human woman, menstrual rituals are performed to affirm the life-giving powers of the female body. This does not mean a woman must have a child nor that childbearing is her sole purpose in life. Rather, I choose to view menstrual blood and the menstrual cycle as a positive affirmation of the amazing generative and creative capacity of the female body.

• Ashes: I created an alchemical elixir with ash from the fire and menstrual blood, meant to suggest the healing of the wasteland.

• White Dress: In this piece, I chose white to punctuate the transformation that happens before and after the ritual cleansing-healing of the earth.

— Thanks to Lisa Skura for helping me capture this moment on film.

Performance with Commentary

Published: December 4th, 2020