AUGUSTINE
dance, performance, film, photography - 2024
A dance document of the eight stages of demonic possession.
Choreographed and performed by Maclaine Lowery, captured and edited by Peter McCain
Artist Statement
Augustine (2024) is a combination of dance, performance, film, and photography that journeys through the eight stages of demonic possession - "Infestation," "Vexation I-III," "Obsession," "Possession," "Exorcism," and "Exorcised" - evoking Jean-Martin Charcot's 1870s photographs of Louise "Augustine" Gleizes, the infamous sixteen-year-old hysteria patient at the Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris, France. We're inspired by the performative aspects of Augustine's enduring imagery and how it arrived at a point in history when the West was rebuilding its ideas of the metaphysical world.
Augustine came under treatment at Salpêtrière during a period of scientific discovery, especially in the emerging field of neurology. The discourse around the causes of various disorders was shifting from spiritual to neurological sources. Charcot, known as the founder of modern neurology, was interested in documenting the physiological symptoms of what he considered neurological illnesses, hysteria being one of them. He first decided to photograph Augustine after hearing reports of her frequent "hysteric" episodes, manifesting in contortions, seizures, and clownism. However, given the difficulty of capturing these spontaneous episodes with the era's camera technology, Charcot photographed hysteria patients during hypnosis sessions, believing they would accurately exhibit hysteria's physiological symptoms in trance states under his direction.
As such, all of Augustine's clinical photos are posed and performed, the ethics of which are questionable, but the occurrence of which was relatively novel for women. Had Augustine existed a century earlier, she might've been tried for witchcraft or received "moral treatment" for demonic possession and sinful malady. Instead, she was photographed by prominent scholars as a significant medical subject. If Augustine was a performer, she was an opportunist, too, seizing on one of the first times in modern Western history that she could captivate an audience with unpredictability and have it taken seriously, read esoterically, and documented with curiosity by educated, influential people. This is our ode to her creative process.
Creative Process
To create Augustine, we first defined the eight stages of demonic possession, using historical medical accounts of demoniacs to inform our terminology. Then, the eight stages were choreographed by extracting and rearranging clips of recorded improvised dance sessions. These sessions included musical playlists tailored for each stage of demonic possession (linked below) to bring about random movements specific to each stage’s experience.
To document Augustine, we filmed the choreographed stages on 8mm film, which was later edited and pasted onto paper dyed with tea bags, evoking the antiquated material of clinical hysteria texts. We also photographed specific “hysteric” symptoms, echoing Augustine and Charcot’s process and imagery.
Related Materials
Dance Session Playlists:
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"Exorcism"
Charcot's Photos from the Salpêtrière:
Collaborator Peter McCain's portfolio:
