Body Art- Humans Transformed into Sci Fi Characters?
Posted by Ellen · January 3rd, 2008I have been thinking about life, people, and what 2008 might bring. After going out for New Year’s Eve in downtown Austin, I felt like I might be living in a weird science fiction movie. I noticed that the human race has somewhat transformed itself into sci fi-like characteristics. If someone from 1900 looked forward into New Year’s Eve 2007, they would see people with tattoos, piercings, cosmetic enhancements, some natural, and some exaggerated body forms. They would also notice that there are still purists left who have not gone over to the other side.
My curiosity was peaked when I started looking at how we must look to someone from the past. I was thinking about the movie Mad Max from 1979 which was set in the future where social decay was just around the corner with motorcyle gangs and outlaws. Sometimes I feel like I am in that movie or even Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome which was post-apocalyptic madness.
I found that the Austrailian Museum of Art online has an entire section titled Body Art.
The museum defines Body Art as:
Earrings, nose-rings, prince alberts, dydos, palangs, bangles, bracelets, rings, tattoos, makeup, body and face-paint, studs, nose-pins, nostrums, blood, hair, ochre, gold, silver, lip-plates, ear-weights, branding, scarring, tucking, sucking, squeezing, shaping: across all sections of society and across cultures people decorate and transform their bodies.
Body Art explores the many different ways, both temporary and permanent, in which people modify, change, decorate, and adorn their bodies. It covers the what, why, how, and where of ‘body art’. Who does it, how do they do it, and why do they do it? Themes covered include: universality, diversity and antiquity of styles; concepts of beauty; identity and transformation; meaning and significance of symbols; and pain, endurance, and rites of passage.
There are some extremely interesting examples in each category that I found particularly intriguing. For example, the Body Shaping section, covers Corsetry, Footbinding, Headbinding, and Plastic Surgery. I also learned that Otzi the Ice Man, who is the oldest tattooed body known, dates back 5,300 years ago measuring in with 57 tattoos, some of which appear to be for the treatment of arthritis in joints such as the ankles, knees, and lower back.
If you are curious about why people engage in Body Art in general or even specifically by type, you should definitely check it all out. My next question has to do with when something crosses the line and no longer is considered Body Art- what category does it then fall into?
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Tags: Body Art, Piercings, Plastic Surgery, Tattoos | Posted in Life and Learning |
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January 16th, 2008 at 9:41 pm
I’ve long been interested in the motivations of people who do the whole extreme body modification thing. Most of them say it is a deeply personal, almost spiritual experience. I still think they are freaky, but what do I know?