Hi Alex,
You wrote:
>I know of a couple other examples of killing off animals in the name of
art.
Joe Coleman came to pulic noteriety by killing (and maybe eating live) mice
.......<
Thanks for these examples but they tend to be quite mild compared to the
facts that the actionists were disembowelling sheep(or is it goats, sorry,
it's one or the other)in front of their audience then smearing the entrails
onto naked participants in the action . Interestingly though is the fact
that some members of the art-viewing public do not take much persuading to
perform cruel acts. Isn't this what the Actionists were also saying with
their use of violent ritual, appealing to base human desires?
>Bob Flanagan's work, from a long article on him in Artforum a couple years
back, is an interesting mix of extreme masochism..... <
Yes, Alex I've seen the Re/Search book but upon browsing decided that I
really wouldn't look at it that much if I bought it since whilst Bob
Flanagan can endure huge amounts of pain due to a childhood of constant pain
with his terminal illness I don't really like photos of extreme pain or pain
itself especially those of genitals nailed to wood such as appear in the
Re/Search book.
Of course in some strange way there's one image of extreme pain that we do
not really see the pain in. Just think how many places you see the image of
christ crucified yet you never really think about it in terms of the
experience of pain. At least I rarely do unless I'm trying to concentrate on
the fact that the pain is ignored. From this perspective the Actionist work
is perhaps a grand expression of suffering tied up with a contemplation of
the christian church and perhaps the suffering under the Nazis since such
things were very recent when the Actionists were working.
But then isn't Buddha's first noble truth that all life is suffering. So
there are themes of suffering within all religion..organised religion has
strong ritual elements thus for Actionists to choose pre-christain rituals
to replicate probably makes perfect sense for what they wished to do. But
there are those Sadhus(Hindu) in India who flagellate themselves and walk
round with spikes stuck in them.
And don't people in some parts of the philipines actually crucify themselves
during holy week. I managed to find a picture on the web
http://tribungpinoy.simplenet.com/ronsoliman/faith11.html
this is by a photojournalist called Ronald C. Soliman who made a photo
document of these rituals see
http://tribungpinoy.simplenet.com/ronsoliman/holyweek.html
Alex wrote:
>Overall, I don't think the VA artists were just trying to shock, but to
somehow redifine their humaninty in what is an increasingly inhumane,
mechanized world, <
Do you think they defined themselves through cruelty?
Their work in many ways seems close to sado-masochistic preoccupations,
that's why I felt there were links to Flanagan's work. BTW there is a
documentary film of Bob Flanagan's performances/life...I forget the title
now as I saw it a while ago. One strange thing about the film was you see
Bob being beaten by his partner and it's all so matter of fact, then she
photographs the bruised skin...I tell you it's strange stuff.
On the whole I find a lot of Body art incomprehensible but I think that's
often because it's hard to get past the initial unpleasantness of certain
actions especially if you're a little squeamish like myself. This doesn't
mean I don't get anything from this kind of work it just means that I'm
likely to feel a bit weird before I can actually start to contemplate the
work.
BTW - Carolee Schneemann's "Meat Joy" is I suppose an example of where
Fluxus and the Vienna Actionists meet. I'm not really all that familiar with
Schneemann's work so I don't know her most extreme. Any idea anyone?
Okay, I'll stop here, thanks to Alex for providing good thought food.
cheers,
Sol.
