Objectifying The Body in Art | an issue of jurisdiction

I have decided to open Art Catalyst up for periodical contributions from other bloggers and artists. Emma  Kirsopp authors The Melbourne Art Review, and after learning of her research interests for her Master’s thesis, I felt she was well placed to contribute a thought provoking post here on Art Catalyst.

Although I have spoken about the importance of the human figure in my work, discussion about the ‘body’ in art can lead us into different territory altogether. This post considers a subject Emma writes and feels passionalely about; artists opening up provocative lines of enquiry into representations of and perceptions concerning ownership of our own body. Reader’s comments or feedback on the subject are always welcome of course.

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It’s a pretty safe bet that the human body belongs to the state and is something to be governed by politicians, diagnosed by the medical fraternity and exorcised by religion. There are strict cultural guidelines which the body must conform to in order to be acceptable in society and any perforation of these boundaries is abhorrent and abject. However, through objectifying the body some artists are reclaiming this jurisdiction and taking the body back.

This cultural perception of the body as state property was brought home sharply this year when entrepreneur and blogger Penelope Trunk caused a stir after tweeting about her miscarriage during a meeting.

Penelope Trunk

The following interviews, news articles, death threats and general public reaction to her tweet indicate that a person’s body does not belong to them. If they take an interest beyond the safe contexts of health or marriage then they are amoral. The fact that I had no idea how a miscarriage occured until reading this story (I had pictured one dramatic expulsion rather than a process that can take weeks) shows how foreign to us our bodies can be. That an acknowledgement of its somewhat messy mechanics is considered perverse.

Since first becoming aware of the power of the body in art, I sought the work of people who focus on its dark and messy interior, artists who deliberately push the boundaries to explore the abject. My strongest influences, those who use the body as a central motif, are Kiki Smith, Matthew Barney and Jenny Saville.

Kiki Smith for example began her career sculpting bowls of bronze digestive organs, or tentatively stringing together porcelain ribs.

Later her bodies gradually become complete, forming themselves around their own internal mechanics as in Blood Pool

Smith observes that religion, politics and medicine all continue to claim some kind of ownership over the body and her work is about ‘trying to reclaim …ones’ own vehicle for being here.’ (Isaak, 2003:51). She works toward the unification of a fractured society whose healing depends upon such objectifications of the body. (Posner 1998)

Smith is not alone in exposing the internal workings of the flesh. Charting abject functions of foetal development is film maker Matthew Barney whose five film epic The Cremaster Cycle [ http://www.cremaster.net/ ] focuses an intense narrative around a split second in the body. The ascension or descension of the gonads.

The Cycle focuses on the body’s futile struggle to maintain a perfect balance between ascension and descension and avoid sexual (and therefore cultural) definition.

Jenny Saville also objectifies the flesh in her uncompromising self-portraits.

In her paintings the body is a faulty vehicle and its power lies in its physicality, in injury and deformation not in the individual who inhabits the flesh. She presents larger than life imperfections and her work is almost flesh for flesh’s sake.

Objectification of the body seems a rather counter-intuitive approach to examining issues of jurisdiction especially for women. However, I’ve found that turning the light on my own body, dressing it up or stripping it naked is a way to explore aspects of cultural discomfort such as sexuality, relationships, affection and attraction. Through examining its often messy workings artists are revealing how we are here and what it means to be flesh. Through this objectification of the body, artists are reclaiming jurisdiction from established cultural/social institutions.

References———————-

Isaak, Jo Ann, 2003, Working in the Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart’ in Jon Bird, ed., Otherworlds: The Art of Nancy Spero and Kiki Smith, Reaktion Books, London

Posner, Helain, 1998 Kiki Smith, Bulfinch Press. Little, Brown and Company Inc., Boston, New York, Toronto, London

A Question of Influence: Reflections on Nyora Workshop

On Saturday 21 November I delivered the Nyora Studio Gallery presentation and workshop mentioned in my previous post.

After being asked by Emmy Mavroidis to present a discussion about my work,  I will admit I revised points raised in an earlier post of mine (Developing Art Presentations) to ensure I was following my own advice. It helped having much of the core material in place (templates, images, references), however the most critical aspect of preparation was adapting any previous presentation to suit the needs and expectations of this audience.

Emmy (one of the Nyora Studio founders) had asked I include discussion around the importance of the human subject in my work. So in this post I share with you some of the core content and reflections on the day with nine eager and talented individuals.

STUDIO INSIGHT

It is invaluable for participants to be given a chance to hear you discuss your work on some level of intimacy, away from the formality of gallery space or the abstract/virtual limitations of the internet. Those familiar with my work understand the extent to which the painting process provokes and informs meaning, so it was relevant for me to step students through the life of a painting, elaborating on

• feeds into the work
• various decisions made
• doubts encountered and
• anxieties overcome to achieve at the finished state

And having the honesty to admit to points of failure too is important – it keeps you and your work real, allowing participants to achieve deeper engagement with your work and you as an artist.

The painting I discussed was of artist, model and friend Ellen Benson. You might recall this painting dissected in terms of its origins, process and resolution in a previous post, Painting Ellen. The benefit of sharing this in person of course is being able to address questions concerning methods, and the importance of time elapsed between states.

Ellen (under painting)

The act of drawing while a painting is in progress (studies of the work itself or completing new works altogether) is a critical device for unlocking and exploring possibilities that may have atrophied in the painting. There is a direct and un-selfsconcious power in drawing that enables fundamental shifts to take place;  first in the mind, then hopefully through your hand.

My painting is almost never pre-determined on a small scale, I prefer to use the actual work as the ground for intial mark-making (and if you thin out your paint enough it really is a form of under-drawing anyway).

Models who visit my studio are usually brought in for me to produce a series of drawings. The process of drawing them  becomes a trigger point for painting. But painting in front of models is not common practice for me. The reason is I have yet to find a pattern that does not leave me all to conscious of my technical processes, moods and rituals in the studio.

INFLUENCES

Francis_Bacon_1952

When discussing artistic influences, there are too many to cover in one post alone but I can name a few core figures whose output in art have in some way (either formally or philosophically) contributed to my work. Aside from the School of London painters (chiefly, Bacon, Auerbach, Freud and Kitaj) the following artists have also given me great cause for reflection (in no particular order)

• Giacometti
• Balthus
• Diebenkorn
• Paula Rego
• Sean Scully
• Hughie O’Donohue

Other contemporary artists include (if you were not familiar with them already), Chuck Close, Yi Chen, Jenny Saville, Rezi Van Lankveld, Mamma Anderson, Jocelyn Hobbie and Zhang Xiaogang.

THE HUMAN SUBJECT

Since my first solo exhibition in 2005, my work has largely focussed on representations of the human figure. In most cases my works are not depictions of specific individuals, though several individuals have fed into the development of them.

I share below a few reasons for my continuing interest in the human figure, while admitting that people remain to me an infinite source of curiosity and revelation.

Observing the transient – I spent many years observing and drawing people on public transport during my student days. Much of the anxiety I felt as a student was sublimated through drawing others; the act of observing and responding to transient people of all shapes, guises and psychological make up became a critical feed into my life. Fundamentally it was a coping mechanism, and perhaps still is.

Photography / Film – The photographed body (specifically when channelled through mass media) has radically influenced, and some would say warped, our conception of ourselves. It is the saturation of the body through mass media that motivates me to affirm a space for the human figure through painting, to continue with a tradition that at its core embodies mental, emotional and tactile experience in a way that mass media denies.

Relationships – Our encounters with strangers, lovers, or friends leave their own human tracks across our memory and consciousness. Painting is a way for me to re-visit or explore these dynamics as they play out in my own mind and recollections. I try to bring to the work a means of dealing with some of the tensions, chaos, affection and conviction that I experience with and through other human beings.

Through painting the human subject I experience the limits of my own physicality. Introducing another person into this equation challenges me to, as the late Francis Bacon once said,”deepen the game” of painting. At this point in my life I am content with taking this on as my key motivation in art.

nyora studio workshop

The workshop continued with a three hour session of painting and drawing with a wonderful model (thanks Daniel). I was fortunate to work with group of artists hungry to move beyond their usual approaches to observing and responding to human presence. I am grateful for Nyora Gallery’s invitation, and to all participants for sharing their own process and creative concerns with me. These too become feeds into my life.

When I looked around and saw the sweaty foreheads, easels, charcoal, wine, and drew in the scent of oil paint it reminded me yet again that when I gave up corporate life just a few years ago, it was the right move.

Artist Talk @ Nyora Studio Gallery

ARTIST TALK & WORKSHOP @ Nyora Studios| SAT 21 November 2009

I have been kindly invited to deliver an artist presentation at Nyora Studio Gallery, which will take place on Saturday 21 November. The presentation will focus on the development of my work, influences and inspirations. Specifically I will address the significance of the human subject in my art practice. Following the presentation a three hour life drawing/painting session has been organised where I will set the pose and be present to offer tuition and guide the direction of the session. For more details about this please visit the Nyora Studio Gallery website.

Nyora Studio is located in the beautiful and leafy suburb of Eltham. I had heard through online networks that artists and students would visit Nyora weekly to attend one of the many courses run throughout the year (including painting, print making, sculpture and drawing) – all of which are testament to the energy and commitment of the studio’s founders, Melbourne artists Emmy Mavroidis and Aldo Bilotta.

What this couple have done with the original space is nothing short of inspiring. Since 2004 the gallery has operated as a working space for practising artists and art students. Originally designed as packing sheds, these c.1930’s weatherboard outbuildings have been transformed into a thriving centre for creativity, learning and output. Aldo’s exquisite furniture  is also on display at the gallery, where visitors are able to view his workshop upon request.

Throughout the year Nyora Studio Gallery hosts several exhibitions, the most recent of which was a series of dynamic prints by Emmy herself titled “In a Minute”.

Some samples of Emmy’s work..

If you live no where near Eltham, all is not lost – you may view more of Emmy’s art work online at www.emmymavroidis.com, and Aldo’s design, furniture and sculptures can be viewed at www.aldobilotta.com

Sean Scully | Resistance and Persistence: Selected Writings

The following book is a treasured part of my art library, and as some folks are always curious about the various influences and feeds into an artist’s work, well here is one of them. Its like a great painting, in  the sense that you can return to it time and again and continue to draw from its depths, its richness of perspective and insight. And it’s also evidence that I am not solely reliant on the influence of figurative painting, I enjoy my share of abstract work too.

The clarity and depth of Scully’s reflections on the meaning and making of art are matched only by the tenacity of a sustained and credible studio practice.

This book provides penetrating insights into the nature and place of painting in contemporary life, offering up metaphors about it that should help guide an artist through a maze of self-imposed constraints  and limitations (real and perceived) just when they need it most.

As a painter I cannot recommend this book enough as a resource that will help extend and challenge your thinking, but more importantly, your work and your conviction about it’s place in the world.

Isn’t it annoying when you see a book online and you can’t peek inside…well this is for you:

[A shameless plug for which I stand to make no financial gain:  As at 28 October, only two left in stock! You can order one here ]