Body fluids in art
An occasional trend in contemporary art is to use body fluids in art. Examples include:
- Artist's Shit (Italian: "Merda d'artista") (1961), by Piero Manzoni, in which the artist canned and sold 90 cans of his own excrement to be sold for their weight in gold;
- The controversial Piss Christ (1987), by Andres Serrano, which is a photograph of a crucifix submerged in urine;
- Self (1991, recast 1996) by Marc Quinn, a frozen cast of the artist's head made entirely of his own blood;
- Piss Flowers, by Helen Chadwick (1991-92), are twelve white-enameled bronzes cast from cavities made by urinating in snow (though this might not be characterized as the use of bodily fluids in art, just their use in preparation);
- Performances by Lennie Lee involving feces, blood, vomit from 1990
- Many paintings by Chris Ofili, which make use of elephant dung (from 1992).
- Gilbert and George's The Naked Shit Pictures (1995)
- Hermann Nitsch and Das Orgien Mysterien Theatre use urine, feces, blood and more in their ritual performances.
- Franko B from 1990 blood letting performances.
- Bogey Ball (2002-2004) by James R Ford
- The Value of Blood by Phil Hansen (2006) was made using 500ml of the artists blood to draw a portrait of Kim Jong-il on 6,000 bandages.
- Exhibiting in New York City and Chicago galleries, contemporary artist Jordan Eagles has been encasing cow blood in clear layers of synthetic resin for a few years.[1][2][3]
- On episode 113 of the television series Mythbusters (2008), the hosts showed that the art of dorodango can be performed by substituting animal feces in place of mud.
However, there have been rarer uses of blood (and perhaps feces) for quite some time. Pete Doherty has painted with blood.[4]
Marcel Duchamp used semen decades ago.
[edit] Criticism and difficulties
Depicting objects of popular respect (religious subjects, flags, etc) in art which includes body fluids can trigger public protests due to such material's historic association with dirtiness. The outcry about the Piss Christ photo is an example.[5]
In addition to the obvious difficulties of preserving perishable material, there can be regulations complicating transport by rail, truck, or aircraft of liquid body fluids due to the fluids' possible classification as dangerous goods.[6] Postal or transportation-security authorities might consider blood, spittle, excrement, etc, to be bio-hazardous substances.
The sale of blood art via eBay is prohibited as eBay prohibits the sale of body parts, and classifies blood art as falling under this heading.[7]
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
- ^ ""New York" magazine article about Jordan Eagles' art". http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2008/03/jordan_eagles_fk13_2008courtes.html. Retrieved 2011-08-05.
- ^ ""Wired" magazine article about Jordan Eagles' BRAC (BloodResinACrylic) paintings". http://www.wired.com/underwire/tag/jordan-eagles/. Retrieved 2011-08-05.
- ^ "Baltimore City Paper article re Jordan Eagles' blood art". http://www2.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=14986. Retrieved 2011-08-05.
- ^ "Pete Doherty's blood art". http://people.monstersandcritics.com/news/article_1304160.php/Pete_Dohertys_blood_art. Retrieved 2008-03-24.
- ^ Fusco, Coco (Fall 1991). "Shooting the Klan: An Interview with Andres Serrano". Community Arts Network. High Performance Magazine. http://www.communityarts.net/readingroom/archivefiles/2002/09/shooting_the_kl.php.
- ^ "International Air Transit Association page on DGR (Dangerous Goods Regulations)". http://www.iata.org/ps/publications/dgr/Pages/manuals.aspx. Retrieved 2011-08-05.
- ^ [1]
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