The human body is integral to the understanding of aspects of identity such as gender and race as well as sexuality. Throughout the ages, the human body has acted as an inspiration for artists. The body was traditionally used to explore sexuality, as well as beauty but this changed in the twentieth century. This shift came about with the advent of performance art, where an artist usually makes use of his or her own body as a medium. This brand of art is often viewed as an offshoot of conceptual art. Cindy Sherman, Atsuko Tanaka, and Andrea Fraser are three artists who use the body in their art. This essay looks at the use of the body as a medium of artistic demonstration in the three artists various works.
Cindy Sherman is a postmodern artist who uses despite using photographs, is not merely a photographer. Instead, she can only be described as an artist who employs the use of photographs. Her images are built around the photographic portrayal of women. Sherman employs the female body in her art to show abjection. This refers to the separation of oneself from what they are not. Thus, her goal is to focus the audience’s attention on the female body and to create awareness of it. Thus, she assumes different identities for the referencing and deconstruction of stereotypes.
One of her works is Untitled 250, which portrays a part of a female mannequin, who is lying on a bed made of hair. The mannequin’s face is old and full of wrinkles and she has long hair, which is whit-blond in color. She strikes a seductive pose, looking at the camera directly. She has extremely large and very erect nipples, as well as a protruding belly that could be symbolic of pregnancy. The female genital parts are also visible, with exaggerated hairiness. The vagina also appears swollen and rather shockingly, has sausage like links protruding from it.
The use of this shocking style is meant to repulse or disgust the viewer, or at the very least, to provoke some reaction. The grotesque nature of the photo is symbolic of the general view of women’s bodies. The tampon, the bow in the long hair, and the pose all serve to remind us of the photo’s femininity. The juxtaposition of the feminine aspects with the grotesque are highlights the difference between the abject and this femininity.
Andrea Fraser is an American artist whose work falls under the genre of performance art. Through her art, Fraser demonstrates institutional critique. Throughout her career, various critics have described Fraser’s work as provocative, shocking, and controversial. The style of art that she practices, institutional critique, refers to a critical analysis of the art world, using the art itself. That is, Fraser critiques the institutions involved in the sale, as well as the display, and the commerce of the art. Her performances employ the use of humor, as well as irony, to critique the social, political, and economic aspects of art.
However, this style has itself been criticized, with critics arguing that the use of the elitist language itself institutionalizes the institutional critique. Institutional critique, just like any other art form, must emerge from within the art itself. Hence, it has always been part of the framework, and this is what leads the critique to stand out as a unique art form.
One of Fraser’s most famous works is the 1989 Museum Highlights piece. This work of art was shot at the Philadelphia Museum of Art where Fraser, posing as a tour guide under the alias Jane Castleton, led a tour in the museum. Fraser employed dramatic and verbose terms in order to give explanations to her tour group. She described all manner of objects, as well as spaces, ranging from the renaissance paintings to the normal water fountain. Fraser simulated the museum’s public face while at the same time; she offered a deconstruction of this face. She revealed the structural bias inherent in the museum, as well as the social prejudice and the economic liabilities of the institution.
Another of Fraser’s performances is her 2003 videotape, Untitled. This video, which is 60 minutes long, involves a sexual encounter, taking place in a hotel room, at New York’s Royalton Hotel. The video involves a private collector who had paid a large sum of money in order to create this work of art. There are only five copies of this video in existence, and the purpose of the performance was to question the male power in the world of art, making a connection between it and female prostitution.
Fraser’s use of the body is obvious from her portrayal of a tour guide in the Museum Highlights performance. Fraser employs humor and sarcasm in order to offer a criticism of the pretentious and greatly elitist behavior and language that predominates the world of art. The museum tour guide, through her language exhibits all these traits. In the video Untitled, Fraser uses her body to pass a message. This message is that she is equating the sale of art to prostitution. That is, she is demonstrating the relationship that subsists between an artist and the collector. She does this by making her body an object of art, and leaving her role as an artist albeit temporarily.
Atsuko Tanaka is a Japanese artist, famous for her abstract work that goes against the conventional norms of art performance. Her work includes paintings, as well as sculptures and performances. These involve objects from normal day life, and her style can be classified as performance art. Tanaka also makes use of her own body in order to model her creations.
One of Tanaka’s most famous pieces is the 1956 Electric Dress, made out of non-traditional art materials. The dress was a sculpture, wearable in nature that comprised of flickering light bulbs, painted in the primary colors. On wearing the sculpture, the body becomes the center of activity and is enshrouded in color and light. The dress in itself is grotesque and at the same time beautiful. It radiates great heat with its cords hanging out dangerously. Tanaka however created a protective sheath for herself to keep the bulbs away from her skin. Tanaka’s aim in creating the dress was to show how Japan’s reconstruction after the destruction wreaked by the atomic bomb attacks. The bulbs are indicative of the technological adoptions such as neon lights. Tanaka employs her body as the medium through which to display the art.
Thus, it is evident that despite these artists using different materials in their art, some commonality exists. This commonality is represented by the role of the body in their work. All three artists view the body as a medium through which they pass messages to their audience. The artists use their own bodies to create and display highly controversial works of art. These works vary in nature from the photography of Cindy Sherman to Andrea Fraser’s videos and finally to Tanaka’s Electric Dress. However, in all of them, the message is clear; the body is a medium for demonstration of art.
Works Cited
Fraser, Andrea. "From the Critique of Institutions to an Institution of Critique." Artforum 44.1 (2005): 278-283.
Fraser, Andrea. Museum Highlights. MIT Press, Massachusetts.
Gomez, Edward M. "Atsuko Tanaka: Painting the Body Electric." Fine Art Journals (2005): 80-83.
Sherman , Cindy. Untitled #250 . CindySherman.com.
Sherman, Cindy. "Untitled Statement." Documenta 7 (Kassel: Documenta) (1982): 411.
Trebay, Guy. "Sex, Art and Videotape." The New York Times 13 June 2004.
