the subjective immolative
I wanted to talk a bit about artists who hurt or endanger themselves. This sort of thing is potentially a bit disturbing so it is behind a cut.
In truth a lot of artists make or have made projects that involve somehow hurting or endangering themselves. Famous (well, in that relativistic art-world way) examples include Chris Burden, Paul McCarthy, Marina Abramović, Joseph Beuys and Vito Acconci. But as with anything else, there are interesting projects that aren't quite as well known...
1. Tehching Hsieh
photograph from "One Year Performance 1980-1981"
Between 1978 and 1986, Hsieh enacted a series of five performances, each of them lasting one year; from a contemporary vantage point, it's a small but potent body of work. For the second piece (my favorite), Hsieh installed a punch clock in his studio: his performance was to punch a time card every hour, on the hour, 24 hours a day for a full year. He did an admirable job of it: by his record he only missed 134 out of 8,760 punches - 1.54% of the total.
2. Otmar Bauer
still from "Zeigt" (film, 1969)
The Vienna Actionists, as they are known, were artists who engaged in scatological, masochistic performances - damage to the artist's own body often being a significant part of the overall process. I'm sure that this work was, in part, a response to violence and state oppression, but I don't want to reduce it too much - just because a work of art is violent doesn't mean it's strictly about violence. In his 1969 film "Zeigt," Otmar Bauer eats food, pukes it up, eats it again, and generally makes a big mess, all with a knowing grin on his face. The film and other actionist works can be seen on this page.
3. LA Raeven
still from "Wild Zone 1" (video, 2001)
Liesbeth and Angelique Raeven are identical twins who make art together under the name LA Raeven. In their earlier work (circa early 2000's), the sisters nurtured a sort of mutual anorexia - their collectivized name takes on added significance with the knowledge that their combined weights at this time added up to about that of a healthy, adult woman. Rituals around eating and not-eating and images of their own emaciated bodies formed the core of their art, prompting questions of self-determination, responsibility and freedom. I'm not sure how much of this is still true about them - I think at this point they've moved on to taking pictures of other people.
4. Wafaa Bilal
still from "Domestic Tension" (performance, 2007)
(thanks to threnodine for telling me about this.) Wafaa Bilal is an Iraqi-American artist who makes work with a distinctly political cast. For his most well-known piece, "Domestic Tension," Bilal lived for one month in an art gallery, within range of a paintball gun hooked-up to a computer. At all hours, anonymous viewers on the internet were able to fire paintballs at Bilal - at one point, even, some hackers figured out a way to make the gun fire without stopping. The original proposed title for the piece was "Shoot an Iraqi." This project relates to a certain contemporary international conflict - you can probably figure out which one.
5. Sanja Iveković
photograph from "Triangle" (performance, 1979)
This is perhaps one of my favorite works of art, ever. Iveković, a Croatian artist, staged her performance "Triangle" on a day when the president of Yugoslavia was visiting her city of Zagreb. As per the visit, no civilians were allowed to be out on balconies or rooftops, and watchmen were posted around the city to squelch suspicious activity. The first vertex was the watchman stationed on the building across the street from Iveković. To form the second vertex, Iveković sat on her balcony, reading, drinking whiskey and pretending to masturbate. The watchman spotted her and called a police officer, who came to her door and ordered her to remove herself and her things from the balcony - his presence at her apartment forming the third vertex, and completing the work.
In truth a lot of artists make or have made projects that involve somehow hurting or endangering themselves. Famous (well, in that relativistic art-world way) examples include Chris Burden, Paul McCarthy, Marina Abramović, Joseph Beuys and Vito Acconci. But as with anything else, there are interesting projects that aren't quite as well known...
1. Tehching Hsieh
photograph from "One Year Performance 1980-1981"
Between 1978 and 1986, Hsieh enacted a series of five performances, each of them lasting one year; from a contemporary vantage point, it's a small but potent body of work. For the second piece (my favorite), Hsieh installed a punch clock in his studio: his performance was to punch a time card every hour, on the hour, 24 hours a day for a full year. He did an admirable job of it: by his record he only missed 134 out of 8,760 punches - 1.54% of the total.
2. Otmar Bauer
still from "Zeigt" (film, 1969)
The Vienna Actionists, as they are known, were artists who engaged in scatological, masochistic performances - damage to the artist's own body often being a significant part of the overall process. I'm sure that this work was, in part, a response to violence and state oppression, but I don't want to reduce it too much - just because a work of art is violent doesn't mean it's strictly about violence. In his 1969 film "Zeigt," Otmar Bauer eats food, pukes it up, eats it again, and generally makes a big mess, all with a knowing grin on his face. The film and other actionist works can be seen on this page.
3. LA Raeven
still from "Wild Zone 1" (video, 2001)
Liesbeth and Angelique Raeven are identical twins who make art together under the name LA Raeven. In their earlier work (circa early 2000's), the sisters nurtured a sort of mutual anorexia - their collectivized name takes on added significance with the knowledge that their combined weights at this time added up to about that of a healthy, adult woman. Rituals around eating and not-eating and images of their own emaciated bodies formed the core of their art, prompting questions of self-determination, responsibility and freedom. I'm not sure how much of this is still true about them - I think at this point they've moved on to taking pictures of other people.
4. Wafaa Bilal
still from "Domestic Tension" (performance, 2007)
(thanks to threnodine for telling me about this.) Wafaa Bilal is an Iraqi-American artist who makes work with a distinctly political cast. For his most well-known piece, "Domestic Tension," Bilal lived for one month in an art gallery, within range of a paintball gun hooked-up to a computer. At all hours, anonymous viewers on the internet were able to fire paintballs at Bilal - at one point, even, some hackers figured out a way to make the gun fire without stopping. The original proposed title for the piece was "Shoot an Iraqi." This project relates to a certain contemporary international conflict - you can probably figure out which one.
5. Sanja Iveković
photograph from "Triangle" (performance, 1979)
This is perhaps one of my favorite works of art, ever. Iveković, a Croatian artist, staged her performance "Triangle" on a day when the president of Yugoslavia was visiting her city of Zagreb. As per the visit, no civilians were allowed to be out on balconies or rooftops, and watchmen were posted around the city to squelch suspicious activity. The first vertex was the watchman stationed on the building across the street from Iveković. To form the second vertex, Iveković sat on her balcony, reading, drinking whiskey and pretending to masturbate. The watchman spotted her and called a police officer, who came to her door and ordered her to remove herself and her things from the balcony - his presence at her apartment forming the third vertex, and completing the work.