We first looked at Tattoos. Tattoos are permanent markings to the skin and can be seen as a way of adding decoration to the body. It has been practiced world wide for years. There are many different purposes for certain tatooing. For example, tattoos have been used as rites of passage, marks of fertility, rank and status, aswell as punishment. They vary in different cultures.
Today however, people choose to be tattooed for cosmetic reasons as well as sentimental reasons. Some people chose to have a tattoo to remember a loved one or their childrens name. Some people choose to have their eyebrows, lips and eyes enhanced through tattooing. Looking at tattoos in more detail has been a great help towards my photography module, as the title is "Layer" I wanted to focus on the layering of tattoos on the skin.
Body painting is another form of body modification and art. They are not as perminent as tattoos, but still produce a pattern on the body. A well known example of this is henna tattooing.
During this lecture, we also looked at body reshaping. For this part of the lecture we looked into the work of the german anatomist Gunther von Hagens. He developed the exhibition known as Body Worlds, which is a travelling exhibition of human bodies and body parts, which have been preserved. The term used for this was "plastination" which is where the body has firstly been embalmed, fat and water removed, and then filled with plasctic.
Many people have been in uproar about this exhibition as they don't see it as art. Some people believe it's offensive to the bodies and to their families, especially with some of the positions they are put in. On the other hand, others have said how it gives a good insight to parts of the body they wouldn't normally be able to see, which could help when carrying out an operation on the spine for example. I personally didn't like what I saw of his work. I'm not very good with things like that usually. One image which has stuck in my mind from the book, is a body holding its own "coat" of skin. I found this quite disturbing.
We also looked into performance art. Marine Abramovic is a performance artist, she began her career in the early 1970s. She has recently started to describe herself as the "grandmother of performance art" as she has been performing for over three decades. Her work explores the realtionship between performer and audience as well as the limits of the body and the possiblities of the mind.In one of her performances, mentioned in the lecture, Abramovic explored elements of ritual and gesture. "Making use of ten knives and two tape recorders, the artist played the Russian game in which rhythmic knife jabs are aimed between the splayed fingers of her hand. Each time she cut herself, she would pick up a new knife from the row of ten she had set up, and recorded the operation. After cutting herself ten times, she replayed the tape, listened to the sounds, and tried to repeat the same movements, attempting to replicate the mistakes, merging together past and present. She set out to explore the physical and mental limitations of the body – the pain and the sounds of the stabbing, the double sounds from the history and from the replication." (Taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marina_Abramovi%C4%87)
Orlan is another performance artist we looked at during this lecture. Her take on performance art is quite unique and I'm my opinion quite extreme! She transforms her face through the use of plastic surgery to make "carnal art." "the artist started to morph herself with respect to some of the most well known historical paintings and sculptures. Orlan's goal in these surgeries is to acquire the ideal of beauty as suggested by the men who painted women." (Taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orlan) I personally think this is an odd take on performance art. I think it's a risk messing with your body and face through the use of plastic surgery at any time. Orlan's work is going to be a source of inspiration however for a doll project I'm completing at the moment. I'm looking into whether the doll Barbie has a negative affect on the western world as well as the rest of the world as she's now global. In particular, I'm looking in to how Barbie may influence women and maybe men to constantly have a youthful appearance, which may only be achieved through plastic surgery.
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