M. Maria Walhout
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M. Maria Walhout's MPhil/PhD Art research project
Indecent/ing tongues
My practice-led research project examines the contemporary charismatic Christian prayer practice of glossolalia ('speaking in tongues') through a queer/trans lens on illegibility. The project's title borrows from Marcella Althaus-Reid's 'Indecent Theology', in which 'indecenting' is proposed as a method of opening up theology to more imprecise and mutable modes and returning it to the authenticity of everyday life experience.
'Pentecost', El Greco, ca. 1600 (detail)
Using autobiographic, theological, performative and poetic modes, the project diffracts glossolalic and queer/trans illegibilities. Following through on the notion that 'Christianity' is foremost a symbolic or aesthetic system, the project reclaims glossolalic practice as a form of 'anti-writing' which unlooses itself. 'Indecent/ing tongues' is entangled in queer and liberation theologies, aesthetic and embodied practice, charismatic and other Christianities and the lived experience of queer/trans embodiment.
Supervisors
- Dr Nina Wakeford
- Louise Ashcroft