Art & The Body: Hananuma Masakichi

'Sculpture of self '(left), Hananuma Masakichi(right),

wood, hair, teeth, fingernails, toenails. 1885.

Masakichi discovered he was dying of tuberculosis and wanted to leave something behind for his wife. His last effort as a sculptor was to make a completely life like representation of himself out of wood. Each piece was caved separately and then joined together. Masakichi pulled out every single hair on his body to use on the sculpture. Each hair was placed into a tiny bored hole on the sculpture, corresponding to the exact place on his body. He did the same with his teeth, fingernails and toenails. He made the eyes of glass, they are completely anatomically correct. It was ten years before he actually died, so...maybe he should have waited a little longer to pull out his teeth.

Although this was completed 125 years ago, I feel that it has similarities with some contemporary practises. There is a definite element of the abject in this work, the use of actual bodily effects for one. The realism I want to relate to the work of Ron Mueck, Evan Penny, Jamie Salmon, Duane Hanson, Sam Jinks, as well as a work called 'Summit' 2010 by Shen Shoamin (political corpses in glass cases, which was on Cockatoo Island.)