ABSTRACT
Composite body represents an ideal or a dream of the trans body, a body that blurs the limits and transgressed the differences between sexed bodies, thus destroying the normative binary; a body modelled on anatomical hermaphroditism, transsexualism and transvestitism. These ideals and contemporary dreams are framed by the same set of fantasies that have underpinned the traditional and ancestral uses of visual and discursive imagery from which composite bodies draw their inspiration. This concerns, for example, the imaginary and symbolic figure of the snake, which features heavily in Carolee Schneemann's work. The fantasy of the phallic mother, of her power and strength, of the masculine power of the maternal being becomes associated with a nostalgia for a paradise lost, such as the imago of the maternal breast, i.e., for a primordial, mythical time, prior to any separation or division, a time before any loss, lack and otherness.
