De/reconstructing the other in the work of Coco Fusco

Coco Fusco is a writer, performance artist, and associate professor in the Visual Arts Program, School of the Arts, Columbia University. Her various publications, lectures, and performance pieces examine the effect of hegemonic discourse upon the appearance of the non-white body in contemporary representation. By examining three of Fusco's pieces, Two Amerindians Visit the West, Better Yet When Dead, and The Incredible Disappearing Woman, this thesis demonstrates how Fusco's post-colonial performance is an effective agent of political resistance. Her work remains testament to the ways in which theatrical representation can expose violent exercises of power over the ‘other-ed’ body, and in so doing, alter perceptions associated with structures of power.