I was lucky enough to get tickets to see ORLAN giving a talk as part of the Performing Medicine: Anatomy season last month. (I say lucky as the majority of events in this season sold out very quickly, ORLAN’s talk was the only part I managed to see despite the whole season sounding amazing.)

The talk was purely about her surgical works, which I appreciated and it certainly left me keen to find out more. I’ve seen a lot of images of her work before, and seen her speak in a few documentaries and tv shows, but ORLAN’s aesthetic has never really captured me and whilst I considered her an important part of the body art world, I’d never really looked into her work before.  All in all I really enjoyed hearing her speak, and a few things she said stuck with me. I’ve attempted to record my thoughts on them here.

ORLAN spoke about how hard it had been to find surgeons to work on her surgery pieces with, explaining that there had been several surgeons who refused to do more extreme modifications to her face because they wanted to keep her ‘cute’ and ‘fuckable’, and who told her what work she could be getting done. Like they knew better than she how she should look?

I guess the whole point of cosmetic surgery is to normalize and beautify the features, but what that involves would actually depend on the surgeons preferences and aesthetics, not the patients. ORLAN has challenged that; as she said in the talk – she is not passive in the surgery process, as we so often are when undergoing medical procedures. She makes the surgeons comply with her preferences.

This passivity during medical procedures rings especially true to me at the moment – I’m in the midst of a cosmetic dentistry procedure I’ve wanted for years.  It is my most expensive and most mainstream body modification – I’m making myself more generic by straightening my teeth, not more unique by decorating my body – but it’s also the modification  that I have the least control over. I haven’t in any way designed how my smile will end up, I’ve left that to the dentist (Because, I guess, he knows best) I would feel awkward taking friends or a camera along to the procedures, although for ever scar, piercing or tattoo I’ve had has been accompanied in that way. But it’s my body, my teeth, and it’s me paying all the money to have this done, so surely I have a right to have it done the way I choose? Why do we so willingly submit to medical professionals, even when it comes to something as personal as how our face looks? Why  do I not take photos during my dentist appointments? Why was I too scared to ask if I could take the removed brace wires home with me? ORLAN refuses this passive role and it makes me think that I should too.

The second thing that stood out for me was how quick ORLAN was to deny that she feels any pain during or after these procedures, her Carnal Art manifesto does announce ‘Viva la morphine’ and ‘Down with pain’ but as someone who has witnessed people healing from cosmetic surgery and has had implant procedures done myself, I find it very hard to belief that this is all as pain-free as she claims.

I can understand why she brushes over the pain though, it’s not the focus of her work at all and as I’m sure anyone who performs acts of piercing, cutting, bleeding knows, the issues and questions surrounding the infliction of pain do tend to overshadow the rest of the work, sometimes meaning that what you’re really trying to communicate is never heard.

It’s been playing on my mind, how these 2 things relate to my work and my life. It’ll be interesting to see where these thought processes lead.

For more on ORLAN see: ORLAN.NET

Rachel’s last show at Torture Garden was a collaboration with Lady Lucie latex and was basically unlike any fashion show I’d seen before. Check the video to see what I mean, it’s not the best quality but you get a few glimpses of the striking stigmatic special effects.

This time round Rachel is working with both myself and French body modification artist Lukas Zpira, hopefully we will create a piece that’s even more memorable than her Easter show.

The man himself, Louis Fleischauer, covered in blood and black paint after the show.

Me, backstage,  taking pictures in the mirror after my suspension. The most impressive part of my outfit has been removed here but I wanted some shots of the hooks in my back.

Closer (though annoyingly blurry) shot of my hooks and blood. The piercings were all expertly and enjoyably done by Sarge of Metal Fatigue. Love that guy!

This shot has nothing to do with the AMF show but I love it. It’s Clement of Xenomorph -3 in a quick pic I grabbed as he was on the way to shower after performing ‘Vanitas, Omnia Vanitas’. I annoyingly missed his piece so I have no idea what caused all this blood, but I’m planning to see his upcoming performance at Torture Garden Halloween where all will be made clear.

I’ll update again soon with some of the amazing pictures we have of the performance, my costume – which was attached to hooks in my back and face – has to be seen to be believed.

It’s been a while since I travelled overseas to perform, so I’m all kinds of excited and nervous about taking to the stage in France next month for the International Body Art Festival at Souterrain Porte V.

The festival runs from September 25 to October 3, climaxing in a fetish, body art & cabaret night curated by London’s own Torture Garden (Meaning there’ll be a lot of familiar faces over in Nancy that weekend!)

It’s at this event that I’ll be performing, once again working with AMF to create some beautiful chaos with flesh hooks and corsets.

AMF performances are always an enjoyable challenge for me. Every time I team up with the driving force behind the group, Louis Fleischauer,  I find myself trying something new, whether it’s discovering the joy of suspending from a spinning rig as I did at Club Antichrist in February, or learning that I am in fact strong enough to handle piercings through my mouth, chest and back all at once, as was the case at the Noise and Blood festival in Poland last year, and of course, I get to do all this whilst wearing Louis’s incredible corset creations.

My feelings about this trip have been pretty mixed, I’m going through a pretty stressful time at the moment and have been questioning whether spending a weekend in another country is really the best idea right now. Things are changing though, and the closer it gets to October 3rd the more I find myself looking forward to it all.

A 30 minute radio programme called ‘The Body of Art‘, which takes a look at the use of the human body in performance art,  is available on the BBC website. Unfortunately it’s only online until the 16th June 2009 but I strongly recommend listening to it whilst it’s there.

There’s an interesting focus on the way performance artist such as Orlan and Stelarc are using medical technology and what the show calls ‘genetic engineering’ (I have no idea if this is the correct term) to push the boundaries of art and science.

There’s also a short segment on Marina Abramovic in which she talks about her infamous Rhythm 0 performance (during which a member of the audience held a loaded gun to Marina’s head) and an interview with Franko B in which he talks about the way 80′s politics influenced his early work. Interestingly Franko says that if he knew then what he knows now, he wouldn’t have done those early blood letting performances as they have become the pieces that define him. I can see his point, it can’t be much fun constantly being seen as ‘that bleeding guy’ when that’s just a small part of the work you do.

The Body of Art on the BBC

[Images: Stelarc and his extra ear. Orlan]