Presentation Overview

Orlan prescribing herself as a Carnal Artist acts upon her own body by abstracting the image of it and going against nature by opposing it and the conventions that exercise constraint on the human body. She also goes against society in her alterations by questioning whether are self representations conform to an inner reality or whether they are actually fabricated for marketing purposes, in the media and society at large especially in the conventions affiliated with beauty. In her work she goes against the idea of ‘God’ in the biblical sense, transforming the body into a language “the flesh made word” as opposed to the word made flesh. Orlan uses her body as a vessel, and she detachs herself as a personality from it.

Orlan through her work modifiys the body, she alters her image commenting on the aesthetics of beauty in society and this can be seen in her nine performative operations acting as a portraits of a potential future of humanity. Orlan detaches herself from her body and responds to the potential in technology enhancing and evolving the body by going against nature’s limitations. She perceives the acceptance of one’s natural self to be a primitive concept, given the technology of our time, and therefore does not believe that nature must be abided.

Orlan has undergone nine operations to remake her appearance commenting on the varying types of beauty which is not necessarily prescribed by the media, and the series as a whole is entitled The Reincarnation of Saint Orlan (this in reference to another art work of Orlan’s entitled Saint Orlan) or Image-New Images. Of the operations performed so far, one altered her mouth to imitate that of François Boucher's Europa; another an appropriation of the forehead of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa; and another imitates the chin of Botticelli's Venus. These models were chosen for their mythical and symbolic connotations as well as their beauty. Venus was chosen for fertility and that being symbolic of sexuality and beauty and "Europa because she looked to another continent, permitting herself to be carried away into an unknown future” . Yet another surgery, the widely publicized "Omniprésence," November of 1993, implanted protrusions in her forehead to mimic the protruding brow of Mona Lisa. the end result was two symmetrical horns.

In the plastic surgery operations/performances Orlan deals with the problem of dissection, peeling, and unveiling which feminist theorists have critiqued as masochistic compared to the sexual sadism of the anatomist's ruthless penetration -- the thrust of the male creator. But her work is also a task of incorporating the image of goddesses from mythology and art history -- such as Leonardo Da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" and the goddess Diana -- as a computerized process of hybridization. Orlan explains: "...I devised my self-portrait using a computer to combine and make a hybrid of representations of goddesses from Greek mythology. I chose them not for the cannons of beauty they are supposed to represent, but rather on account of the stories associated with them. Diana was chosen because she refuses to submit to the gods or to men, she is active and even aggressive...(Goode, 1997)”

Art and Audience

What is inspiring to me especially with art interaction with its audience is how it brings people together, it invites strangers together and encourages people to be creative, to get involved, to think and to do. There is always a fun experience when it comes to interactive artworks because it involves all of us. In Art and Today, I think the work, well all of them in fact not this one specifically, really captures what I am saying "The Sound We Make Together" By Harrell Fletcher a 2003 project took video footage of local groups "who were invited to practice their regular recreational activities". This artwork was made in Texas, and takes particular groups/societies and shows the variety of these groups and makes the audience more aware as well as adding an uplifting element, for everyone who is participating is creating something they are passionate about and sharing it with those who are not only just their peers. What is pictured is Harrell Flecther for in couldn't find stills from the films unfortunately.

Art and Politics

I like the Guerilla Girls, we discussed them in class and what attracts me to them is there gender equalist attitude towards women in the artworld. When it comes to art and politics there is such a wide spectrum, because anything can be turned political, more so then others of course- maybe this a sweeping statement, but anyway the personal interacting with the social, the interpersonal expierience and your knowledge of the world, your social class your race- all this takes part in how you react or how your artwork is perceived. This is kind of relative to the Guerilla Girls, there artworks are specifically gender related. In their artworks there is a use of percentages to respond to the lack of women artists in major galleries and museums. They formed in 1984 which is a huge part of there work for it is reflective of their time, and they use poster like formatt and advertisement to highlight what they stand for; to engage the audience and to take action. No one is left out, in one piece which we dicussed in class, which highlights this, was a poster which asked "what do these artists have in common? (it lists the artists)...they allow their work to be shown in galleries that show no more than 10 percent of women artists or none at all". Whats great about their work is that they have had an impact, because of what was highlighted, institutions "scrambled" to improve their ratings. I personally like the poster "Do women have to be naked to get into the Met Museum", 1989 which is pictured. I like it because sex sells...nah, its because of the information that comes with the work it is shocking and sad that it was a reality in 1989.

Art and Its Institutions

When it comes to art and its institutions its hilarious to see the satirical and comedic work that comes out, especially against high art and its audiences, especially for how much this has changed and how accessible art is today. This is explemfied in Thomas Struth work of his large scale photographs of people at blockbuster mainstream art exhibitions to see the masters. His "lush" imagery depicts famous museums such as the Louvre in Paris, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and other major Art tourist attractions, which amuses me that the audience is portrayed as the artwork, and indeed the wide spectrum of the audience portrayed, its your average joe blow and your john doe there, or people from the other side of the world, the old institution of art is no longer art maybe, its a tourist attraction, and the real art is something else on the other side of the spectrum, or maybe he is just poking fun at something that is portayed so serious is so accessible to everyone and that you can take a photo inside there and it is an artwork in itself. How he was able to take the photos also intersets me just because normally there is no photography allowed. The photographs also demonstrate the large scale of the artworks and how the audience is "dwarfed" by the piece, the decoration- the architecture comparitive to its audience- how beautiful the atmosphere is compared to the averageness of the audience. His work also demonstrates how institutions shape our perception, how art in the street is perceived and how museums add this air of importance to the work- he highlights this "elitism". What is pictured is the Gallery in Venice, taken in 1992, and the Louvre in Paris taken in 1989.

Art and Architecture

Bodys Isek Kingelez playful take on architecture and design is both engaging and fun to look at. Its childlike and its colourful, there is nothing bleak about it, its like he took grey out of his vocabulary and made rainbow his medium and exploded into a mass of buldings and structures. His work really sells in this way because though it could be arguably garish or kitsch, it is also happy, it makes me happy cities normally look dull and grey and his work is it trying to make as happy does he want a better world, his work is also comprised of recycled materials so he may be interested in bettering the world. His work is modern at the same time, which is what is fascinating to me for I passionately hate new buildings I think they are so uninspired compared to older victorian houses or art deco or even 50's, basically prior 70's I like, and as an artist he has attracted me to modern artichectural dreams, there is definately something old made new, some art deco related structures there but with a modern twist. I think anyone who likes lego and liked making/building lego as a kid or even now would enjoy looking/researching his work. Villa fantome, 1996 is what is pictured.

Art and Globalisation

For Art and Globalisation I have decided to discuss the work of Yinka Shonibare. What interests me about his work, in relation to his headless manniquin figures dressed in Victorian style European costumes, is the theatrical element and the aesthic element, his work linking to fashion and culture which I don't know is his intention, the initial intention is different which I will discuss, but to me I see his work as wearable and a product as well as a piece of work that is a scene and i actually would like to buy the clothing to wear myself, the idea of wearing/advertising the work. What I read in Art and Today is somewhat different to my own reading, which just adds another element, the work Gallantry and Criminal Conversation, 2002, "explores the contradictory fallout of European colonization of Africa", and I believe this is symbolised by the European style dress with the african style fabric/pattern, its a hybrid of the two into an item of clothing, one wearing the other. This idea of hybrid is also explored in the vulgarity/animalistic sexual energy that is coming from the work, all the mannequins participating in a sexual act, maybe that is suggesting that it is human nature to extract, take, make two one, to oppress, to dominate. I think this quote is quite necessary in describing the work taken from Art and Today- "In his work we glimpse both the desire of the dominators to appropriate "otherness" for themselves and the longing of the dominated to adopt the lifestyles of their oppressors"

Art and Spirituality

For Art and Spirituality I thought I would discuss the work of Alex Grey who explores in his art the mind the body and the soul. In his work he depicts "the human body that "x-ray" the multiple layers of reality, and reveal the interplay of anatomical and spirital forces"(quoted from Alex Grey Biography on alexgrey.com). His forms are reflective on his experiences in education (his anatomical education at Harvard Medical School) and his mind expanding experiences (the trips he took with his wife in college) and his interest in the psyche. What is prevalent in all his work from the begining of his practice to now is themes of death and transcendance. As an artist he is best known for the translucent glowing bodies which have been praised by renowned healers Olga Worral and Rosalyn Bruyere, his visionary figures are placed in human expieriences such as praying, sex, birth and meditation. He is well known for his Art work for Tool, which got me interested in his work, and he has also done work for Nirvana, SCI and Beastie Boys. I highly recommend going to his website, and also go on a tour of COSM (Chapel of Sacred Mirrors) the large piece/place that he in collaboration with his wife has created, he is very visionary in his ideas so don't get confused, its not an order, its really just a promotion of expressing ones creative path.

Alex Grey's Official Website- http://www.alexgrey.com/
Chapel of Sacred Mirrors Website- http://www.cosm.org/

http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/visionary/- Also this website is notable to go to, its Artists discussion on Visionary Art, there is also Alex Grey's own discussion on the movement, very interesting.

Art and The Body

When I began my research in Art the body I asked myself what attracted me the most and what is art in relation the body to me, then i put the two together and drawed to the conclusion that when it comes to art and the body the most profound artform to me is tattooing and the history of tattoos. Of course there are many histories on tattoos, one that predates back up to 5000 years, and the art itself is evolving and is becoming digital, and is available everywhere and is now on a mainstream and fashionable level. Once in the western world about 50 years or more ago tattoos were only seen on gangs and the roughest of chicks and circus performers, no person in there right mind got one. I remember my dad telling me that he hid his tattoos for a long time, for he got them in the 70's and back in that time it wasn't a social acceptable thing to have; it was shocking in a sense and he went further into boasting how he was one of the first in Australia to do so, though that is probably an exaggeration. But now, to the shock of my father, every man and his dog can have a tattoo, and the significance of tattoos has changed, its become more personal rather than a culture practice.

The significance of tattoos is different in every culture and in every history. All over the world it has been practiced and it can be spiritual, it can be a fad especially in England in 1862 when the Prince of Wales got a Tattoo it was also prevalent in the English Navy, it is something decorative like in Japan with the full body suit; horis- japanese tattoo artists doing there work and once the individual dies the suit that was created on their skin in maintained and preserved, in Egypt it was a ritualistic practice associated with women, it can be seen as a sign of courage in South America and so forth.

Tattoos have changed in application, what was once something of high pain, placing ink through the skin and also different natural ingredients to create colour has become one of an artform just because of the complexities of the practice of tattooing especially since the permancy of the image being on the individuals body, with the advancement of technology it is no as painful as it once was there are a variety of inks/colours to enhance the image and differebnt guns and needle size. What was once an artform with basic techniques has become complex because of the diverse nature and the advancements in tattooing.

I thought i would conclude my brief on tattooing with my own personal experience with Tattoos. I got my first Tattoo when I was 16, and when my Parents found out I was 17 and my father instead of exploding in rage just found it funny. It is a phoenix bird and I extended it further when I was 18.It now covers my whole back, and I designed it myself, it is inspired by my name and the origin of the Phoenix Bird and its birth from the Tree of Knowledge out of a rose. Its not finished but i am lookinh forward to it being :), it is on the bottom and the other three images are of german circus performers found on early 20th century postcards.

Overview: Wolfgang Laib: Returning to What Is

The interview by Jorgensen gives an insight on Wolfgang Laib art practice and the truth of his work, that of it being his life and evoking his life. It is an intimate discussion on his art practice and how he naively- as Laib describes it- believes that art can change the world. He as an artist has a real utopian view on art, how if it is real good it can include everything in life and humanity, art, as he describes it is important. His art practice and his studio evoke this sense that it is his life’s work, it is incredibly methodical and engulfing in his day to day life, and his studio reflect on his work completely and is a big influence on his what he does for his studio is mostly glass and he lives in the middle of a landscape. As an overview the interview gives an intimate discussion with the artist, you could literally feel his presence when you read it, it is not detached rather it connects the audience with the artist and it gives his reading on his work, rather than an author or a journalist.

The interview introduces him as an artist being German and his early career beginning in the 1970’s and how he has been immensely successful since this time, it introduces the movements he was affiliated with and what people of said about his work and then discussed further with the man himself on his opinions of this. The interview begins with discussing the mediums he uses and why. He describes his work as having an abstract quality by taking materials of nature out of nature attaining purity. The pollen for example, is intensified and abstracted when it moves from the natural environment into the gallery. It is intense for you see the pollen away from the meadow and nature into artificial light making it about the pollen itself, which makes it also abstract for it is in an unnatural environment. He as an artist has been described as nature artist, and in this way, as his practice has been briefly described goes against this view for though he uses material of nature, his work is not about the environment its about the detachment of the materials environment- it is not about the meadows it is about the pollen itself.

The interview goes on further to discuss his views on the art world and his detachment from it; it also discusses his beliefs and why he became an artist. He is detached from the art world mainly because of his art practice and his studio, he was isolated from the beginning and his studio has remained constant throughout his practice, his studio being in the meadows of a small village of Southern Germany. He describes his studio as I said of being of big influence to his work “the windows go all around to the floor and you can just sit even while there is snow outside” it is involving but in the same way isolating him from the art world, but not from what he believes art to be which he stresses in the interview, for he believes art can change the world. This is the reason why he became an artist because he believes Art is the most important thing, because it can evoke everything in life (if it is good), it involves everything and is the now in society, and this way he challenges himself in his art to create good artwork.

In conclusion the interview is insightful and gives a personal account on Wolfgang Laib as an artist and provides the audience with an inside perspective on his art practise and his “thoughts on the function of art in the world”.