Practitioners:
A practitioner which I have looked into and which I think is rather relevant is the French Artist ORLAN. She explores different techniques such as photography, video, sculpture, drawing, installation, performance, biotechnology, etc.
ORLAN is also the first artist to use surgery as part of an artistic medium.
She was the first artist to use surgery as an artistic medium making her work question the boundaries of the body.
With our instillation working with how your emotion can change depending on what is happening around you. With this being cause and effect I think ORLAN’s use of the body and the ‘cause’ of surgery and the ‘effect’ it has on her body, makes her an influential practitioner for our research.
In ORLAN’s ‘the ultimate masterpiece’, she uses the surgery (which is to reconstruct, remove and can also enhance) to make art work, her body being the canvas. This made the operating room a performance space. With the idea of Alex and I deciding not to eat for a week and seeing the effect means that this is not just an experiment on the cause it has on us mentally and physically but also means it has been turned into a performance. Photos will be take, an analysis of each other’s moods will be done by each of us and a record of moods etc will be noted. This will be shown to the participants to see.
Her book, Biography, Marina Abramovic shows you her performances she has done with the name by the side. Looking through them they all seem to be something which pushes her as a performer but also the audience. One example is Rhythm (1973). This involved her spreading her hand out on the table and stabbing between each finger. every time she cut her self she would change knives. She had 20 knives to use and when the last knife had been used the audience could have been assumed the performance was over, but the relief was short lived as she then went on to re-open and re-cut the incisions.
To be able to have no control of the cutting as a spectator and still watch it is what pushes you as the audience, and she takes it further with the opening and re cutting. With the risk involved there is no way of saying what could happen by the end of the performance.
Another example of her work, which i believe is something which pushes her as a performer, is Rest/Energy (1980). This consisted of her and a partner (Ulay) holding a bow and arrow between them. Ulay was blindfolded and had hold of the sting and arrow blindfolded as Marina had hold of the arrow which pointed at her heart. They would both lean back to get the string taut. The performance would end when either of them lost focus or became too fatigued. this performance showed trust between the both of them, ‘ Ulay not wanting to become a wounded/murderer and Abramovic not wishing to be a victim’ (2010, p. 22).The risk is there for the audience to see and with no idea what is going, this the same with the performers
Work Cited:
Abramovic, M and Richards, M (2010) Biography
ORLAN, Online at: http://www.orlan.eu/ (Accessed 5 April 2013)
ORLAN: A Hybrid Body of Artworks (2010) Ed. Donger, S. Shephard, S. and ORLAN, London: Routledge.