{"id":1422,"date":"2010-10-19T10:51:45","date_gmt":"2010-10-19T16:51:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alliwalk.com\/blog\/?p=1422"},"modified":"2010-10-19T13:53:57","modified_gmt":"2010-10-19T19:53:57","slug":"body-image-in-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alliwalk.com\/blog\/2010\/10\/body-image-in-art\/","title":{"rendered":"Body Image in Art and Design"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the past week or two, I’ve been collecting a lot more information about body image, or the body, in relation to artists’ works. Particularly, scholars who’ve written about the body, artists who use the body in their art, or artworks featuring the body or body image. It’s been actually quite interesting to look through all of this information. Here’s a list of what I’ve come across below. For some of them, I’ve written some short thoughts or descriptions about what I’ve seen or understood.<\/p>\n

Marina Abramovic<\/strong>, (performance art) Rhythm 0<\/em>:
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\nIn Rhythm 0, Abramovic placed about 70 articles of pain and pleasure in front of her, and then stood as an object while the audience manipulated the objects with her body. Starting out innocently, the performance turned more malicious and aggressive as audience members began to cut her skin, tore her clothes, fondled her breasts and even put a loaded gun to her head. (She provided the gun and the bullet.) When a guard announced that the performance had ended, Abramovic, now teary eyed, walked towards her audience as one of them, yet many or all of them literally ran away. The artwork questions how we objectify each other and tests the limits of our civility towards each other.
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Carolee Schneemann<\/strong>, (performance art) Interior Scroll<\/a><\/em>:
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\nIn Interior scroll, Schneeman reads a paper scroll as she simultaneously pulls it from her vagina. Definitely an act of reclaiming her body and her ownership of her sex.<\/p>\n

“I thought of the vagina in many ways– physically, conceptually: as a sculptural form, an architectural referent, the sources of sacred knowledge, ecstasy, birth passage, transformation.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n


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Barbara Kruger<\/strong>, (photography collage) including Your Gaze Hits the Side of My Face<\/em>, Your Body is a Battleground<\/em>, You Are Not Yourself<\/em>: \"\"<\/a>
\nI have to admit that I don\u2019t quite get the art, but I really like the phrase, “Your Body is a Battleground”. It represents so well how strongly we have to remain conscious of the fact that we have a right to not look like how the media, fashion, and the contemporary body aesthetic tells us we should look.
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Cindy Sherman<\/strong>, (performance\/photography) including Untitled Film Stills<\/em> and other photos series in which she dresses up as other people\/identities:
\nThis is an amazing selection of images that challenge identity and image. When I looked through these photos, I thought \u201cWho are we really?\u201d Is our identity ours, or do we in some way embody the identity of others? I\u2019m still not so sure I know what Cindy Sherman really looks like….
\nLink<\/a>
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Pipilotti Rist<\/strong> (video performance) PickelPorno<\/em>:
\nPipilotti Rist apparently made her mark with this video. It features a man and a woman, some nudity, and a fish-eye camera, along with other imagery; some sexual. At first, I really didn\u2019t like the video because not only did I not see any intention, the production quality is fairly poor. (I guess I\u2019m used to HD!) I turned it off, and then returned to watch it. After a while, I found enjoyment in the unusual or overlooked perspective views of the body. For instance, with the camera so close to the body, human skin is seen as it really is – hairy and imperfect. I found that while I often wanted to turn away, I couldn\u2019t. It was like a visual exploration of the body, reminiscent of the way 2 lovers explore each other\u2019s bodies.
\nView film on YouTube<\/a>
\n\""Pickelporno",<\/a>\""Pickelporno",<\/a>\""Pickelporno",<\/a>
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Ana Mendieta<\/strong> (performance\/experimental) Cosmetic Facial Variations<\/em>:
\nShe was a Cuban artist whose work included a series of \u201cCosmetic Facial Variations, such as looking ambiguously male and\/or female.
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Orlan<\/strong> (‘whose medium is plastic surgery – commenting on the world of artificial changes to the body to be perfect\/beautiful’):
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\nSeems as though she has undergone a series of plastic surgeries, and then uses not only the surgical results as artwork, but also the surgery videos. She also seems to want to push our interpretations of chasteness and sexuality in religion, and the openness, or lack of openness, of female sexuality.
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Laura Mulvey<\/strong>, (scholarly writing) “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema<\/a> PDF”. “A seminal work on ‘the gaze’ – how female identity is structured through the male gaze”:
\nPoints<\/p>\n