Sacrifice of Skin (part 2)
The Body as a Paintbrush
Yves Klein
Yves Klein was born to two painters in 1928, in Nice in France. He had an obsession with the expanse of sea and sky, after growing up on the Mediterranean coast. In his teens and twenties he studied judo and Rosicrucianism and taught himself to paint. Through judo and his fascination with eastern religions he began to realise his connection to the cosmos. While practicing judo he believed he'd found 'the discovery of the human body in a spiritual space'. He learnt to meditate and felt that he could leave his body and float into a void.
By accident he discovered the use of monochrome. After painting a ceiling of a basement blue, he realised it increased the sense of space, giving it a feeling of limitlessness and spiritual purity. In 1956 he showed his first major exhibition of single hued paintings, which he considered metaphysical fields devoid of emotion.
In 1960 Yves Klein created and patented the ultramarine blue colour now known as International Klein Blue or IKB. He used this colour in most of his work as he felt it was the ultimate in spiritual colours.
He went on to try and depict the body's physical energy. Using models bathed in IKB he directed them to press and drag themselves over paper and canvas leaving behind an impression of IKB paint, like a kind of human paintbrush. He discovered that not only did the prints have a likeness to the model; they also represented their temporary physical presence. He called these paintings Anthropometries.
Yves Klein took this idea into a full performance piece called The Monotone Symphony. In March 1960, at the Galerie International d'Art Contemporain in Paris, Yves Klein performed his first conceptual piece. He proceeded to conduct a ten-piece orchestra in his personal composition of The Monotone Symphony, which he had written in 1949. This symphony consisted of one note. Three naked models appeared. Klein then conducted them, like the orchestra.
The music began. The models then rolled themselves in the blue paint that had been placed on giant pieces of artist paper - the paper had been carefully placed on one side of the galleries' wall and floor area - opposite the full orchestra. The event lasted for 20 minutes after which there was a strict 20 minutes of silence, where the audience was invited to meditate in their own personal space. Yves Klein's' last words that night were, 'THE MYTH IS IN ART'.
In Untitled Anthropometry (ANT100) 1960, Yves Klein unusually involved his own body in the painting, making 3 prints of himself, the two other prints being made by his wife. This was truly a new concept in painting and held something universal, almost tribal. The painting has an almost cave painting feel to it, there is something amusing yet simple in the printing of the body.
Apart from the fact I love the IKB colour, I find myself relating to Yves Klein's beliefs regarding spirituality and colour. He worked with how the art and colour made you feel, which is an area I am very interested in.
The Body as a Canvas
[Authors note: There is even less available on the web about Hideki Fujii, than when this was written in 2004, I cant even find any images anymore (bar one or two!)! There are lots of amazing body painters cropping up all over the place, go google!]
Hideki Fuji!
I was unable to find out much about this Japanese photographer. Hideki Fujii works closely with one of Japan's most talented make up artists, Teruko Kobayashi. They collaboration is aptly named Karada Kesho, which means `body make-up' in Japanese.
In this partnership a new type of art is formed. It's body art; it's body painting, yet the application and photography means that this becomes fine art.
" Bare Skin has a life of it's own; within it's balance of shadow and light, poems of life are found"
I find these images beautiful and inspiring. A perfect example of the body being used as a canvas for paints, gold leaf and glitter. The beauty of the human form in different positions, with the paint highlighting the contours of the body, makes me realise how beautiful the human body is, the colours used and techniques of painting add to the beauty.
Topolino
Topolino is a make up artist with a difference. His art verges on theatrical make up, but rather than for any specific purpose, Topolino uses the face and body as a canvas.
Topolino was born in Marseilles in 1965. During the 80's, aged 19, he began his career at 20ans magazine. After completing an apprenticeship at L'Atetie Parrallele, he mastered the basics of his trade, hairstyling, fashion, make-up, manicure etc. He stayed out of the mainstream fashion make-up and used only his own inspiration and imagination.
Topolino, 'Mickey Mouse' in Italian, thrives on fantasy, fairy tales and legends. His sketches retain all the spontaneity and innocence of his childhood. Unconcerned with the need to 'go one better' in the world of fashion, he developed is unique and original style.
Topolino has created make-up for photos, music videos, advertisements and catwalk shows. His style never fails to surprise. By going against the norm, bypassing pre-conceived ideas and convention, his work remains breathtaking. The skin is his canvas, and there is no limit to his inventiveness. His talent ties in his use of modest means, drawing on the skin with a ballpoint pen for example.
In a combination of make-up, ritual body painting, artwork and fashion, he turns a face, a body, Into a glorious work of art:
I love the simplicity of his work and the use of organic materials like rose thorns, petals and feathers. He picks out the beauty of nature and combines it with the face, manipulating them both to reach a magical conclusion.
The Body as the Medium
Fakir Musufar
Born in 1930 on an Indian reservation in Dakota, Fakir Musufar had a very difficult childhood. Not accepted by his white community he found solace with the Native American Indians, who were also a non-accepted culture. During his time spent with the Native Americans, he learnt of other cultures, and the practice of faith involving the body. He tried to maintain a`normal' life, studying engineering and creative writing, working in advertising and having odd occupations such as Instructor in demolitions and explosives in the US Army. The ability to experience visions, or trance states stayed with him from childhood, and he began to privately practice the ability to reach the spirit through non-sanctioned means. He experimented with what he now calls `body play'. In 1979, he made his first public appearance at the first International Tattoo Convention in Nevada. Since then he has dedicated his life to speaking, writing and teaching others about body play.
In the 90's he was featured on many N programmes, with his amazing examples of mind over body. Fakir Musufar's body play has connections with shamanism. Drawing on the shamanic rituals of the past and body modifications and performance art of the current age.
This type of performance art is inspired by many tribal cultures, where these practices are completely normal ways of attaining a higher vision, enlightenment.
Fakir Musufar sees the need for the human race to go back to the body and redefine what it is capable of.
In out culture we do not have the tests of body tribal cultures do. These tribal cultures use piercing, scarification, cutting, branding, suspension and body modification as rites of passage. When you think that in our culture these things are marked with a cheap, tacky greetings card from the local Clinton Cards, it is no wonder we have lost touch with our own bodies and have become used to living in a physically easy and sterile world.
Our culture in the west does not test the body's limits, thus strengthen the mind and spirituality, if anything, the body is something to be paranoid of, something to be ashamed of in it's normal state of nakedness. This pushes some to go to the lengths of plastic surgery, to fit in to the ideal.
I would like to point out that there is a difference between tribal body modifications and plastic surgery. In an interview with Fakir, he states "The people who are getting collagen injections, and the people who want the plastic surgery want a nose like Marilyn Monroe... So basically what their body modification is all about is to conform, whereas the kids who are getting tattooed and pierced are going in totally the opposite direction. The purpose of their body modification is to non-conform. And where it might have been that you had to have this so you could be a warrior, you could be grown-up or whatever, here it isn't that way. To do this you are a maverick, this is the way you display your difference "
Fakir Musufar's art is challenging to the artist and the viewer, a type of ecstatic art, bringing pain and ecstasy into the same realm. By controlling pain (or the negative spirit) you control your own negativity, which in turns leads to strength. After all doesn't feeling, touch, pain and sensation actually tell us that we are alive, in a physical body?
Now the creator of the Modern Primitive Movement, Fakir Musufar teaches body piercing, suspension and many other tests of the body and mind.
Franko B
Where as Fakir Musufar's art is the performance of his body and mind achieving something almost unachievable to the rest of western society, Franko B's art comes from is what he actually does with his own body and bodily fluids.
Franko B describes his work as focusing on the viscera/, where the body is a canvas and an unmediated site for representation of the sacred, the beautiful, the untouchable, the unspeakable and for the pain, the love, the hate, the loss, the power and the fears of the human condition.
Born in Milan and has lived in London since 1979. He studied at the Chelsea School of Art, graduating with a BA in Fine Art in 1990.
His art is shocking to say the least, after watching a video of one of his performances in which he paints himself white, puts in what looks like a drip and bleeds all over a canvas only then to be pulled up by his feet and hang, suspended, naked and bleeding in front of a crowd, I began to think about the artists fascination with the body and the audiences reason for viewing.
Watching the performance was disturbing, and yet moving at the same time. I felt like I didn't want to participate in enjoying what looked like a mans personal torture, and yet it captures you, like a horror movie, it excites you and as all good art should do, it makes you think.
Again, as a result of living in such a sterile world, we do not have the personal experience of the body in that way. Horror movies containing blood and gore are a form of entertainment, documentaries depicting war and violence are how we can remain detached yet informed of what's going on in the world. Franko B's performances are limited to 2 or 3 a year, due to the extraordinary lengths he goes to, to achieve his art.
His art is not about death, but about questioning the human condition, and reclaiming the body as a form of art, equal to the body as a science. His performances are the art; they putt the viewer in an immediately awkward situation, as if they have stumbled on a private moment and are enjoying being the voyeur. Many people faint or leave the room during the performance, not being able to stand the brutal truth and honesty of his work, of life, of the world. Alongside the performances, are the canvasses that get covered in blood during the show. These are then used in creating more traditional style paintings with the medium being blood on canvas.
While being extreme I believe that Franko B's work is also a beautiful representation of body art. Invoking strong emotion and inspiring us to look at our own bodies, life and death. He is sharing with us a private and yet universal medium. His art is about giving, the giving of himself to the viewer, where an amazing feeling of trust exists between the artist and his audience.
Orlan
Born in 1947 in St Etienne, France, Orlan has become famous for her attempts to change her image using plastic surgery. The reason this is so unusual is that she actually disfigures herself rather than enhance her appearance. The point is that who is to say what is disfiguration and what is beauty. Her power and control over her own body and image, makes us think about our own image in the world and what we conform to. What do we perceive to be beautiful or ugly? Who says a size 10 woman is beauty and a size 20 woman fat or ugly?
Orlan uses plastic surgery as her medium of choice. Since 1990, she has undergone a series of choreographed "performances" during which her face is surgically morphed through the use of plastic surgery. Her intention is not to become "beautiful" but rather to suggest that the "objective (beauty) is unattainable and the process horrifying."
Orlan is an active feminist and is totally against the Christian religion. She has coined the term Carnal Art as the name for what she does. Using the Christian idea of saints and martyrs she is trying to achieve a saint like appearance, adding to her mysterious and cult like status, she keeps her personal details, even her real name, away from public knowledge. Through the means of surgery, Orlan morphed different sections of her face to match the facial structures of seven icons of feminine beauty. For example, two of the seven characteristics are the forehead of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa and the chin of Botticelli's Venus. Orlan's intention was not to become "beautiful," but rather to suggest that the male perception of ideal feminine beauty is an impossible feat to conquer.
These performances illustrate how ridiculous this unattainable ideal beauty would actually look, and how horrific the surgical process is. Influenced by Duchamp, she considers her body a"readymade", which can be altered or reconfigured using advanced technology and medicine.
In opposition to the Christian faith, that deems the body as sacred, 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.
Her performances consist of live, videoed operations, sometimes to music, sometimes with dancers dancing around the operating room. She remains conscious throughout, talking to the camera, reciting words and talking to the surgeon. Any parts of her body that are removed are made into relicaries, pieces of flesh and tubes of fat framed as an extra piece of art gained from the operation. These relics are sold to finance the next operations... to date she has had 9...
I'm not a fan of Orlans work, although I do understand the statement she is trying to make. She ironically has become the epitome of selling yourself for personal gain, but by making herself go through operation after operation to prove the point that she can.
She has the ultimate control of who she is. With little background information available, manipulated photo's and constant operations to change her appearance no one except herself, knows who she really is.
Conclusion
We are living in a sterile and censored world, where the body is seen as offensive, explicit or full of shame. People all over the world are striving to fit an image created by the media. Impossible goals for many of us, we abuse our bodies and mistreat our minds by not accepting and loving what we have.
I feel that body art celebrates our bodies. I totally disagree with those people who see it as a desecration of the body, or something that ruins you. Body art in all its forms reaches out to every individual on a personal level, but it also highlights mans creativity and need for an artistic outlet.
The freedom in changing your body by what ever method you choose grants us the power to feel individual, it lets us feel like who we are, it takes us back to our tribal roots, where singing, dancing, meditation, laughing and feeling free are normalities. The world we live in does not give us such pure opportunities anymore, embarrassment, shame and lack of confidence take the place of being free.
The pain a person goes through to achieve his new chosen adornment, tattoo, or art, is a healing process, one in which others can relate too. This pain brings relief, the relief brings happiness, and happiness brings confidence. The confidence to be who you are, feel how you want to feel and be proud to be unique.
What we have seen in this essay is that the artists, performers and people involved are individual, they are expressing themselves in a very personal and powerful way. I have been inspired by these artists, not just within my own art, but within my own self. Body art stretches the imagination, encourages personality and creates creators. It makes us aware of the body, aware of our own space, our own little bit of the world. It also makes you appreciate the body and in turn, this allows you to show a little more respect of yourself and others.
In answer to the questions posed at the beginning of this essay: How much of an artist goes into their work?
Every artist will tell you that all their work has a personal element, for some this element may be the whole thing, but many artists work is easily understood, or, processed... easy to digest. Body artists give of their actual flesh and blood, they emerge you in their torment, our bodies react to the pain we see in front of us and there and then, we become one with the art. As we have seen, these artists go way beyond the norm of expression, but with them we learn so much about ourselves and our lives.
How much of themselves is sacrificed for the sake of art?
Body artists sacrifice all they are for their art, for the art is what helps them be who they are. But this is not a one way street. I have experience of this with my tattoos. The reward for going through something painful, for choosing it and getting through it, is being one step closer to the truth of who you are. It's an achievement to be celebrated not frowned upon. Sleepless nights, paint spattered clothes and weary bodies are a small sacrifice to create a painting, but, in art, all artists sacrifice something.
Peace..
Cat
Bibliography
Books - Decorated Skin - A world survey of body art (Thames and Hudson)
Yves Klein (Taschen)
Topolino - Make up games (Assouline)
Magazines - Skin Deep Tattoo Magazine International Tattoo
Web -
Omi www.hollywoodstudios.org/~holley/omi.html
Catman www.stalkingcat.net
Lizard Man www.thelizardman.com/
Fakir Musufar www.bodyplay.com
Franco B www.frankob.com
Yves Klein www.yvesklein.de
Orlan www.orlan.net
Videos - South Bank Show - Performance Art
Open Space BBC - Knuckles of Love and Hate