The Constant State of Desire, 1989

1H 5', Betacam SP, PAL, couleur, son


Trained at the San Francisco Art Institute, American artist Karen Finley belongs to a radical feminist tradition, using her body as a primary medium to question the social and discursive structures of power. Her performance The Constant State of Desire denounces the patriarchal system of 1980s American society through a transgressive artistic language that fuses embodiment, verbal expression and a crisis of representation.

The piece is composed of modular acts and scenes, varying from one performance to the next. Finley alternates between monologues, ritual gestures, and direct interaction with the audience. At different moments, she appears in a yellow dress, undresses, smashes eggs onto her body, and covers herself with glitter. The text she performs follows a “stream of consciousness” structure, aiming to convey the unfiltered flow of thoughts, emotions, and perceptions of the characters she embodies. These figures – often anonymous and deeply traumatized – articulate narratives of sexual violence, familial abuse, and destructive fantasies [1]. Finley channels these voices without psychological detachment, entering a performative trance in which she physically incarnates their fragmented psyches.

The violence represented on stage functions as a scathing critique of femininity as constructed through the lens of a toxic male gaze. Language is exposed as a structure of domination, while the body becomes a raw, immediate conduit of meaning. In this context, Finley constructs a performative space in which, as writer Cynthia Carr notes, “desire attaches to disgust.” [2]

Equally central to the work is its formal transgression. Finley deliberately blurs the boundaries between performer and spectator, cultivating a palpable discomfort sustained by the confrontational nature of her language and the visceral quality of her imagery. The indistinction between fiction and reality, between personal confession and symbolic performance, intensifies the work’s emotional and political impact. As theorist Lynda Goldstein has observed, Finley’s practice gives form to a “feminist anger at social injustices and violence perpetrated against women by the dominant culture.” [3] The Constant State of Desire breaks taboos, surfaces repressed traumas, and directly challenges the foundational myths of patriarchal power. Through her embodied performance, Finley exposes the monstrous impulses of aggressors while giving voice to victims – figured here as fragmented, postmodern figures. [4]


Nicolas Ballet
2025

[1] See Karen Finley, “The Constant State of Desire,” TDR, vol. 32 / 1, 1988, p. 139-151. Online: https://doi.org/10.2307/1145875

[2] Cynthia Carr, On Edge: Performance at the End of the Twentieth Century, Hanovre, University Press of New England, 1993, p. 130.

[3] Lynda Goldstein, « Raging in Tongues: Confession and Performance Art », dans Irene Gammel (ed.), Confessional Politics: Women’s Sexual Self-Representations in Life Writing and Popular Media, Carbondale, Southern Illinois University Press, 1999, pp. 99-116 (p. 102).

[4] Melissa D. Greenwood, “Power and Perfection in Karen Finley’s The Constant State of Desire: Creating a New Discourse,” Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2004, p. 20. Online: https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/870