Performative Image: health warnings/a crucifix?

Having read Katerina Bantinaki's review of Barbara Bolt's book Art Beyond Representation: The Performative Power of the Image and a couple of chapters from the book itself, I am finding it hard to think of any secular images which could be considered to have performative elements.

Initially, when I was thinking of 'performative' as a term which simply meant 'which has an effect', in that a performative utterance is something which effects a change of some kind, I questioned whether or not the images on cigarette packets nowadays could be described as performative. To an extent, I think this is possible as the image has an intended effect of dissuading people from smoking. Bantinaki writes, '... the image is thought to embody its object rather than merely signify it; it is thought to assume a degree of reality that allows it to transcend its status as a sign, thereby gaining the power to affect the user ... in a more direct and powerful manner.' (215) Though the image is perhaps made more powerful by a projection, from the viewer onto the image, about the life of the person depicted, probably identifying the person depicted with themselves as a fellow smoker, it does not invite a dialogue between the image and the user.

The efficacy of the image may be questioned but does an image have to fulfil its function to be considered performative or just need to have a desired function? If it's the former, how would it be possible for performative images to be thought to exist in a secular, technocratic society? If the image has to fulfil its function, surely Artaud's images aren't performative either. Did his spells ever work?

The cigarette packet images have one serious set back in that they are highly representative, the documentary style of photography hardly enabling 'the dynamic relation between artist and materials' (214) which Bolt's theory suggests.

So what could be a performative image? Within the Christian faith, I wonder if the crucifix could be considered one. The action of prayer in front of a crucifix suggests its power within the faith. It could be argued that the depiction of Christ on the cross 'transcends its status as a sign' and hold some spiritual presence, what Bantinaki refers to generally as 'life': 'When life gets into the matter of the image, the image produces reality and thus casts its effects back onto the world.' (215) A believer supposedly having a prayer answered could be an example of this or, in folkloric tradition rather than scriptural evidence, the belief that the crucifix can ward off evil spirits, hence its use in exorcisms and vampire novels.

Cited work:
Bantinaki, Katerina. Review of 'Art Beyond Representation: The Performative Power of the Image' by Barabara Bolt, British Journal of Aesthetics. Vol. 46, 2006. 213-216.