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TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION – Body Language 1.1 Fleshing Out Communication 1.2 Blood, Skin and Viscera: Sacred and Sacrilege Subjects 2. Timeless Body – Purpose of Religion, Magic and Superstition2.1 Governing the Body in Ritual 2.2 Categorization of Ideals: Beautiful and Abject 3. Physical Culture – Manifestations of Acceptance and Rejection 3.1 Forming Standards of the Beautiful and Abject 3.2 Medicalization of the Body 3.3 Body as Point of Contention in Art and Culture 4. The New Body of Art 4.1 The Fetishized Body – Modern Manipulation 4.2 Emerging Bodies in Biotechnology-Art Media 5. Challenges 1. Introduction – Body Language Volumes of literature, immeasurable amounts of paint, tons of chiseled stone, manipulated flesh
and medical exploration still cannot make any specific conclusions about the mysteries or
meanings of the body – and its separate parts. Beyond the definable vital functions of the body
that support an individual’s existence, a hidden language arises to manifest what is happening on the inside, intellectually and emotionally. “Body symbolism” as a fundamental unit of cultural communication, specifically in relation to perceived power, taboos, and new symbolisms is the subject of Sacred and Sacrilege: Body Symbolism in Art and Culture. At the present day, to understand why so much attention is paid to the appearance of the body, it is necessary that the historical study of body symbolism and its language precede the systematic analysis of contemporary treatises on the body. Body Symbolism stems from semiotic constructs of specific cultures that, in antiquity, have roots in religion, magic and superstition. Straightforward biological descriptions of the body are not sufficient enough to explain the occurrences between the mind and body. Instead, through the hybridity of religion, culture and magic, the body is culturally constructed. Inherently, issues of ethnic profiling, body ideals and superstitions influence the perception of those involved in the encounter of the mystical and cultural body portrayed in art and cultural practices. In modern culture, the body is still seen as an object to manipulate, dissect, and probe. For the last two centuries, cultural and medical practices have been trying to integrate mind and body relations in the understanding and care of the human body. Ancient religion and philosophy recognized the connection between the mind and body were literally ignored in Western culture. It was René Descartes, one of the most influential thinkers of the European Enlightenment, who introduced the concept of the mind-body split, a view that dominated philosophical thought in the seventeenth century. He is best known for the theory of Cartesian dualism: that the material and mental substances are distinct entities. The soul, a mental substance, was thought to exist at a specific place, namely, in the human pineal gland, the material location. Even though he introduced this mind-body split, the soul theory is still problematic as he positioned the abstract idea of the soul, which supposedly does not take up space, within a gland and there was not enough evidence to explain why and how it would function there. In the centuries to follow, this paradoxical conclusion had been the underlying force of how the body has been viewed. In the medical field, the body is akin to the machine, a vessel to be manipulated and remedied. In the laboratory, the human or animal specimen is regarded as a tool of scientific inquiry, with little or no emotional influence with performing research. Only in the last two to three decades, the mind-body relationship has been observed in sporadic ventures of holistic medicine and alternative mental healthcare and major medical centers where Eastern medicine is integrated with Western procedures. In the periphery of mainstream culture, there is a minority of sub-cultures that have rejected the majority's superficial views of the body. For instance, Modern-Primitives, a sub-culture of mainstream society during the mid 1980’s on the west coast of the U.S. , viewed the body as an integral part of their spirituality and intellect. They pushed the boundaries of pain thresholds through piercing, tattoos and body modification to attain a different physical consciousness and visual social status. Further attempts at resolving the mind-body split can be observed in contemporary art and the diversified cultures that practice mind/body connectivity and by creating new symbolisms. Art, culture and spirituality operate within and in response to a larger social realm. Art represents the creator’s expression, intent or message formulated within unique parameters. The produced art or objects can spawn a whole movement or system of revolutionary thought thus to be perpetuated by those who subscribe to a particular ideology. Within the structures of ideology arise the notions of what is sacred (accepted) and sacrilege (rejected) behaviors and practices. 1.1 Fleshing Out Communication Units that make up communication in the basic sense must also be clarified. The body and its vocalization, physical gesture, written word, or the real or virtual presence of whole or partial body can identified as the first units in communication to the interpretant of a message. This is based on C.S. Peirce’s discovery of the triadic relation of the sign, its object and its interpretant. In the most primal sense, the body and mind are the instigators of transmitting thought in hopes of connecting with another being. The body has its own language and varies from one person to another. Outside of basic gestures and voice tonality, the interpretation of a person’s physical attributes is based on cultural premises. On the biological level, the organismic body is the origin of body semiotics. Before modern body semiotics, Aristotle introduced physiognomics, the assessment of a person’s character from the physique of body and face, especially features that cannot be disguised by the bearer like bone structure, stature, voice and gesture. Dependent on hard facts like unchangeable features, the assignment of positive and negative characteristics by society cannot be controlled by the bearer of the physical feature despite the almost ridiculousness of the assumption. This activity falsely charges people with strong or weak features as social threats or risks to a community of people. It is from false assumptions that feed into the perpetuation of cultural stereotypes and the behaviors towards the subjected people.
Fig.1
Categorization of physical attributes can also be another tool of domination. For instance, separation between ethnic groups based on physical attributes unfortunately led to the creation of the study of eugenics (including the United States) and genetic determinism became part of Fascist rhetoric led by Nazi Germany of the 1930’s and 1940’s. Genetic determinism was a major influence in setting up people in distinct groups as a means to exert control over them. A wide nose and large brow insinuated a lecherous man. Prisoner’s brain sizes in the U.S. Penal System were catalogued to show varying degrees of supposed criminal intent. Hitler identified the combination of blue eyes, blonde hair and white skin color as a superior race and considered his own dark features as inferior. When seen from the perspective of human cultural body semiotics, Cartesian logic has not passed the tests of time or scholarly rigor. In fact, the stereotyping of people and characteristics only prove that modern man clearly wrestles with the interactivity of the mind and body and perhaps fear the fact that harmony can arise from the cooperation between the two entities. Differences in physicality are pointed out to persecute, not to appreciate its value. Thus, the symbols are placeholders of a perceived truth that is held in sacred or social regard for further scrutiny and understanding of their roles in human life. The perpetuation of body symbolism embodied in predominant politics of social and traditional practices are dependent upon the units of knowledge conveyed, regardless if they are proven or not. 1.2 Blood, Skin and Viscera: Sacred and Sacrilege Subjects Body Symbolism along with Bodily Semiotics, support the analytic approach of this work, identifying the symbolic and cultural belief systems that deal with the human form. Of particular interest in art, medicine and culture are social perspectives upon blood, skin and viscera. From the three subjects, new languages emerge from modern sub/cultures and do affect everyday life. Many people will not understand fully the prevalent theories behind the body parts, but will definitely be affected by them subconsciously and consciously in daily living. Sub-cultures aim to subvert values of a larger society in preservation of uniqueness and autonomy. The physical presence of a symbol in any sensory mode is absorbed into the subconscious, melds with presumptions and conditions an individual has come to associate with the social environment so as to make personal choices. In reference to religion, magic and superstition, what survived are temporal, significant meanings to the use and presence of the body and its parts or functions. 2. Timeless Body – Purpose of Religion, Magic and SuperstitionReligion and magic allow human beings, within realms of mortal capabilities, to interpret the wonders not just of the natural world, but also the supernatural and paranormal on a metaphysical level. Both disciplines also acknowledge the sacred and profane. “Sacred things are those to which interdictions protect and isolate; profane things, those to which these interdictions are applied and which must remain at a distance from the first. Rites are the rules of conduct which prescribe how a man should comport himself in the presence of these sacred objects.” 6 The foundations of the sacred and the profane lie in the acts of acceptance and rejection, but the forms of the elemental assumptions vary in some degree. The two extremes can also be delineated as: good and evil; clean and unclean; beautiful and abject. Catholicism, Judaism and Islam have strict codes of conduct when dealing with the sacred and profane, the reward of aspiring towards the sacred is life itself under specific circumstances governed by the religious leaders. The consequences of death or alienation are associated with sacrilege subjects. Ascetics however, may see enlightenment through sessions of bodily denial, which can come across as self-punishment. By depicting the two extremes in art and cultural practices, the populace’s conduct of behavior are prescribed through subjects of morality. Thus, social politics directly influence the practices of religion and magic in attempts to exemplify actions that would result in harmony or calamity in an individual’s environment and wellbeing. The calling upon other-worldly forces or acknowledgement of such presence, characterize the customs around the human body’s well-being in the present world. Priests and shamans of various religions and cultures can help facilitate healing of the afflicted or rectification of conflict between the spiritual and real world which have manifested in the human body. “Magic or healing though ceremonies is clearly one of the important traditional functions of medicine. In magic the healer manipulates the setting and the stage. In a somewhat impersonal way he establishes an ad hoc relationship between himself and a group of individuals. Magic works if and when the intent of patient and magician coincides, though it took scientific medicine considerable time to recognize its own practitioners as part-time magicians.” 7
Fig. 3 In many magical practices, a shaman often plays a key role in regards to the body’s function in the present world. The shaman is the intermediary between the supernatural and real world, able to control forces in both places in order to help the inflicted or inquisitive. Shamanic medicine would include not only ceremonial potions for ingestion, but ritual objects that have magical powers to heal. These objects represent gods, spirits that control parts of the body and mind. The connection between body, mind and cosmos is intimate therefore it is only natural to call upon this unity in the attempt to heal or sometimes to inflict harm.
Fig 4. In China , one of the major influences of Eastern mysticism, the body is a representation of the cosmos. There are correlations between the internal and external body parts to elements of landscapes, beats and winds. The body also is a site of divine alchemy – attributing to creative and destructive powers of humor, vapors or new life. Within the regenerative forces of the internal organs “the body exactly replicates and includes the whole of the cosmos – while still being an element itself – cosmogenesis merges with embryogenesis.” 8 Following the examples of homologous models that exemplify similar structures, the body also represents life and death cycles as well as the socio-political order of the environment in which it lives. In both Eastern and Western cultures, there is an acknowledgement that the humors or essences do affect the homeostatic state of mind and body. Eastern medicine approaches issues of mind and body with holistic remedies. Psychiatry, an invention of Western medicine, treats mental health separately from the physiological issues unless a validated connection is made. Protection, in various forms, against ills or evils towards the body is a concern on almost every social or religious level. Superstitions abound in every culture and many of them pertain to the body. As a way to explain the mysterious, as protection from bodily harm, and to amateurishly remedy ailment, superstitious practices range from drinking foul-tasting concoctions to hanging talismans around one’s neck.
The most widespread superstition relating to the power of bodily gesture would be the Evil Eye. Also known as “matiasma”, “malocchio”, “mal de ojo” – all over the Mediterranean , from Spain to Turkey , belief in the power of the evil eye still thrives. Since it is fertility and food production that the evil eye envies and destroys, it can be countered by a show of still more fertility. The two hand signs (Fig. 5) that are used to oppose it are both depictions of the female reproductive organs. In one, the thumb, second and third fingers are folded onto the palm while the first and fourth fingers protrude like horns. The horns resemble, of course, the horns of that female symbol, the moon, but primarily they represent the bull’s-head shape of the womb with its fallopian tubes. The other protective gesture is that known as the fig or fico, in which the fingers curl into a fist with the tip of the thumb showing between the first and second fingers in imitation of the female vulva. The hamsa (Fig. 5) is a common icon used to ward off the spell of the evil eye. The downward-hanging hamsa or hamesh hand is a popular Arab and Jewish amulet for magical protection against the evil eye and evil in general. Hamsa ("five" in Arabic) and hamesh (the same in Hebrew) refers to the five fingers. Arabs also call the double-thumbed hand the hand of Fatima , after the daughter of Mohammed, so among them this hand image acquires a slight veneer of religiosity that overlays its folk-magic roots. Similar hand amulets are used among Jews, either double-thumbed or of normal proportions, but without ascription to a personage. The Jewish hamesh hand is sometimes portrayed as an eye-in-hand, making its anti- evil eye purpose very clear. Similar downward-hanging milagro hands are common in Mexico , and the use of the hand and eye in the symbolic talisman can be recognized even in Asiatic cultures because of cross-cultural influences or coincidental beliefs. The embodiment of evil, unpredictable as it is, warrants many protective precautions and rituals. Through magical thinking, the power of superstition temporarily puts fears at bay. Fears that are based on hysteria or hypochondria, superstitions act almost as a placebo to placate the sufferer temporarily. However physical ailments can be real consequences of hysterical and hypochondriacal symptoms. The mind is capable of manifesting psychosis into bodily ills, but the approach to treatment can be inaccurate due to uncertainty of origins within the body. Seemingly incapable of self-control and at the loss of medical help, “the hysterical body (is) given over to that disorder of the spirits which, outside of all organic laws and any functional necessity, could successively seize upon all the available spaces of the body.” 9 In religion, the usage of idoltry and ritual summon divine intervention to mortal affairs in attempt to quiet or remedy the sufferer. 2.1 Governing the Body in Ritual Bodily perceptions are from cultural practices embedded with a combination of myth and knowledge. Myth is the best description of what culture processes as theoretical knowledge of origins of the body and its functions whereas knowledge is based on actual facts or events. Metaphors of the body in ritual uphold a culture’s belief system and affect the way it will be viewed socially or treated medically. The assignment of gender to a bodily element affects the cultural attitude toward it. Blood, a popular subject of most religions and culture, has powerful meanings attached to it, especially when in context with gender. In the instance of Indian mythology, the medical texts regard blood as androgynous (having both male and female qualities). “It tends to become primarily female in most post-Vedic discussions, perhaps because all fluids tend to become regarded as female in contrast with solids (or igneous substances), which are male. Thus blood is said to be given to the child by the mother, bone from the father. In this way, menstrual blood comes to be regarded as the female counterpart to semen in many texts, in contrast with nonsexual blood, which is deemphasized as a sexual fluid in the woman.” 10 In western culture, menstrual blood is associated with pain and excrement, the female body viewed as dirty or untouchable at that time. As stated in the Book of Leviticus of the Bible, menstrual blood takes on a magical or transgressive force for impurity: “When a woman has a discharge of blood her impurity shall last for seven days; anyone who touches her shall be unclean till evening. Everything on which she lies or sits during her impurity shall be unclean. Anyone who touches her bed shall wash his clothes, bathe in water and remain unclean till evening. If he is on the bed where she is sitting, by touching it he shall be unclean till evening. If a man goes so far as to have sexual intercourse with her and any of her discharge goes on to him, then shall he be unclean for seven days, and every bed on which he lies shall be unclean.” 11 Around the world, there are ample examples of taboo and superstition concerning bodily functions and what is deemed as accepted or rejected behavior. Superstitions about the body have represented a way for us to try to explain the normally unexplainable, and to try to control the seemingly uncontrollable. Fear of the other, in this case the procreative powers of the woman, contributes to the creation of taboos and superstitions. Further discussion of superstitions and folklore between the sexes will be presented in relation to the subjects of the sacred and the sacrilege in the arts. 2.2 Categorization of Ideals: Beautiful and Abject The categorization of the beautiful and abject would naturally occur from the doctrines of sacred and sacrilege subjects concerning the body. Establishment of ideal physical attributes in men and women from Greco-Roman origins has influenced cultures worldwide. The ideals of beautiful and abject are associated with good and evil, ritual objects portray integrity through caricature or bestial depiction of the two extremes. The legacy of eighteenth-century encyclopedias and morphological classifications persist even today. In modern life, the situation becomes even more complicated as every part of the body is increasingly commoditized. Still, there are common standards for what is attractive or grotesque. To be accepted into the norms of beauty, people will squeeze, nip or tuck in superficial features in order to appear acceptable to onlookers. The Barbie Twins (Shane and Sia Barbi) seen in Fig. 6 is a prime example of what happens when every part of the body is accentuated to create the ultra beauty. The two sisters are renowned for cheesecake calendars and are icons of Playboy and Hustler magazines. What results is not the apex of hyper beauty, but the caricature or botch of beautiful ideals. Essentially, it is sensual overload under the guise of bad biology, where subtle beauty is lost in any direction of the Twins’ modifications to overcompensate the need to fulfill masculine appeal. Just as statues in plazas and churches displayed ideal human physical attributes that possess heavenly aspirations or consequential ugliness in ancient times or different places, mass media functions in the same repetitive manner of exhibiting popular ideologies of attraction and repulsion presented in almost monstrous proportions to drive a point across the visual arena.
Fig. 6
3. Physical Culture – Manifestations of Acceptance and Rejection 3.1 Forming Standards of the Beautiful and Abject Codes of behavior towards the body exhibited in modern cultures are the culmination of prevailing views from the exploits of: Western culture (European origins), widespread Christianity, and “Oriental sensuality” the western, stereotypical construct, that exotified the liberal depictions of the body in literature and art. Many of the prevailing views are based on popular beliefs or misrepresentations succeeding from these exploits that are deemed as standards. The basic units to convey the beautiful and the abject are in constant flux. A society’s fascination and fear of the sexualized or medicalized body dictate the surviving presumptions depicted in created works. Creators of literature, performance, visual art and sub-cultures often take on the challenge of confronting stringent concessions about what is accepted and rejected in culture. The created tensions are what test the unit of communication for its validity and influence upon popular perception. Up until the twentieth century in Western culture, neoclassicism, along with its aesthetic emphasis on form, simplicity, proportion, and restrained emotion, was the mode of communicating tales of morality, forming unwritten standards of strength, beauty and valiance. Beauty was equated with enlightenment, the attainment of truth. Any mention of the abject or horrific was depicted in relative times of disease, war and unrest. The divisions between the two extremes were less complicated than today. Society places the most stringent rules of association and acceptance to the in-groups. But the boundaries around the accepted and rejected become blurred as world cultures become more diverse and the struggle for autonomy plays a role in self-destiny. What was considered ugly and reprehensible now may be the very definition of what is attractive to another. 3.2 Medicalization of the Body Medical treatment upon the body has been greatly influenced by the fundamental, cultural beliefs on how it should be regarded. Beauty can be attained by medical adjustment. Abject features can be de-emphasized. Those who do not prescribe to surgical augmentation, body adornment or adjustment are placed low on the scale of beauty Complication of “social iatrogenesis,” the induction of disease or complications from society and medicine creates an imposition upon the body. 12 The agency of the doctor or medical specialist has powerful affects upon public perception and aspects of the un/clean body Doctors, surgeons and healers – all considered a practitioner of some form of magic– unveil some of the mysteries of the body under their interpretations. Resulting superstitions and unnecessary treatments will uphold these distorted beliefs. “The medicine man commands poisons and charms. The Greeks’ only word for “drug” – pharmakon – did not distinguish between the power to cure and the power to kill Medicine is a moral enterprise and therefore inevitably gives content to good and evil. In every society, medicine, like law and religion, defines what is normal, proper, or desirable. “ 13 3.3 Body as Point of Contention in Art and Culture Contemporary art actualizes the inherent conflicts of body imaging and challenges cultural doctrines established in past histories. New theories on the mysteries of mind/body inter-workings were introduced by the psychoanalysis of Carl Jung, Sigmund Freud and Willem Reich. The unconscious is central to analytical psychology, resulting in greater adaptation to reality (both inner and outer), and a more developed consciousness. The unconscious is experienced through symbols, and an essential part of the process is to learn its language. Jung and Freud separate ways in respect to how the subconscious works, especially in concern with the libido. Whereas Freud had a reductionist, rigid view of libido in which its base was sexual, Jung explored further how libido was that and perhaps synthesized by a person’s physical surroundings and cultural environment. 14 Reich, also identifying sexual and mental effects upon the subconscious, termed the phrase “body armoring” in which the unreleased psychosexual energy can produce physical blocks (armor) in muscle and organs which pose as barricades for physical and mental expression (related and unrelated to sex) until the release was attained through orgasm. Nonetheless, the pictorial representation of the subconscious was a key exploration of Surrealist work with Dadaist foundations and psychoanalytic principles. Approaching World War II, the Surrealists fabricated new symbolism that was incorporated in work where internal monologue and the fantastical collided. Alongside of political unrest and changes in public opinion, artists responded by producing novel and iconoclastic imagery that deconstructed institutionalized definitions that formed modern cultures. The subconscious body re-formed into objects of conflict and sensuality included the revulsion and strange attraction to the grotesque nature. The assemblies of caricature, trauma or deep-rooted dark narratives were brought about by means of upsetting the foundations of cultural symbolism that established popular opinion.
The Surrealist cross-references between ancient and new symbolism marked a cultural juncture where new meanings were created. The political-artistic climate became a diverse array of novel symbols in rebellion against patriarchal authority through prominence of body features, extension of gestures or display portrayed in sacred and sacrilege contexts Prominent artists like Salvador Dali employed the paranoiac-critical method a process whereby the interpretive disorder of paranoia is mimicked to generate alternative forms of knowledge not ordinarily available to consciousness. Max Ernst’s collages used found imagery and objects that demanded the redefinition of aesthetic categories. Victor Brauner began devising his own idiosyncratic pictorial language by visualizing the amalgamation of Egyptian, Middle European, Greco-Roman, Hopi, Oceanic, and diverse cultural progenitors portrayed as pictographs, ideograms, and hieroglyphs. 15
Fig. 8
Fig. 9 Ironically, in light of the progressive art movement, women artists of the Surrealist era were still regarded as muses and lovers whose male counterparts attained inspiration, but felt threatened by their feminist power for fear of losing male freedom. Artists like Frida Kahlo embraced Freudian psychoanalysis and ancient symbolism to unpack narratives of personal and cultural histories that affected her Latino, feminine identity and physicality. Dorothea Tanning’s paintings explored female sexual transformation into maturity. Others, Hannah Hoch, Meret Oppenheim, et al would also challenge and change the representation of female forms in contemporary art. 3.4 Re-contextualizing the Body In visual and performance art, the Surrealist movement is important to acknowledge as a turning point in modernity. What the Surrealists tried to convey in visual art, the co-existence of the subconscious and real, performances by groups such as the Viennese Actionists were dissolving art into reality in primeval ritual happenings. The culmination of art, ritual and religion brought about the issues of the human body, simulating pain and death, and the impact of the spectacle as criticism or organized religion.
Fig. 10 By breaking the erotic and beautiful spell of the superficial body, Actionists in Vienna and New York confronted religious symbolism, conventional beauty, and the sacred/profane. Hermann Nitsch, associated with the Vienna Actionists, founded Orgien Mysterien Theatre (translated as Theatre of Orgies and Mystery) in the early 1950’s and was informally proclaimed a high priest of the group. Performances led up all the way to the late 1990’s. 16 Christian religious symbolism and references were demystified through cathartic ritual involving animal carcasses, blood, and body mutilation, From its purist form in the ritual “action,” the symbol is uncharged, stripped of its linguistic meaning or visual significance. However, at the end of any performance or art production, there will always be a new symbol or sign arising from the new work, which then becomes an “offering” to the next level of discourse. 4. The New Body of Art 4.1 The Fetishized Body – Modern Manipulation Body modification/mutilation - activities that include: male and female circumcision, scarification, tattooing, piercing, dental sculpting - is still enacted outdoors or in rustic environments by designated persons (holy men, elders, etc.) in non-industrial and developing nations. In the industrialized societies, the body is manipulated in parlors, out-patient clinics and in the hospital – all which revolve around sterility and cleanliness. The manipulation of the body connects the mind and spirit with its spiritual surroundings by way of pain, lucid consciousness and ecstatic levels of sensation or awareness. Informal (clinical) manipulation practiced in mainstream culture is inevitable as the adornments or augmentations are commoditized symbols for widespread consumption. In recent decades the physical manifestation of spiritual awareness has crossed over into large, sub-culture groups in which practices are made known publicly through media or through cross-cultural interaction. The phenomenon of the Modern Primitives from the mid-1980’s can best exemplify how a sub-culture can impact societal trends and how the fetishized body evolved into a way of life and affects the cultural economy. While Hermann Nitsch continued “actions” in Europe , Fakir Musafar and Bob Flanagan were icons in the body art/manipulation scenes in the United States . Fakir Musafar, the father of the Modern Primitive movement, has been exploring the spiritual in art, body modifications, sado-masochism (SM) and “body play.” Coining the term in 1967, “Modern Primitive” is used to “describe a non-tribal person who responds to primal urges and does something with the body.” 17 The accomplishment of enlightenment occurs by recognizing the body as integral to the spiritual journey and letting go of the ego in order to attain non-verbal wisdom from within. The presentation of the inner self is manifested through varying degrees in physical ritual, utilization of ethnic symbology, and bodily adornment, including surgical manipulation such as tattoos, branding, piercing and implants. The degree manipulation represents the bearer’s response to living within a society and the controls it exerts over people and freedom from social expectation. During his earlier years of body play, Musafar confronted the male form in long-term corseting that resulted in an hourglass figure, typically associated with the “timelessness” of feminine beauty. Trained in suspension arts and shamanistic healing, his practice pushes the limits of the skin and body, piercing massive hooks in the ritual art.
Fig. 11 Internal wisdom comes in many forms in different cultures. Depending on an individual’s personal history and connection to ancient ritual and culture, issues of exotification will complicate matters further. Upbringing and environment are important factors and/or exclusions in the formation of personal philosophy. In response to the misappropriation of “primitive culture” into colonialist American white culture Bob Flanagan answers, “I was raised in New York and Orange County – no way is something like the Lakota Sioux sun dance in my system… but Porky Pig strapped in a chair was! That is my god, my mythology. And those images of Jerry Lewis submissive to a stepmother–“ 18 Outrageous as it may sound in light of identifying pop culture, Flanagan’s spiritual elements are comparable to many religious systems: identification to totems and spiritual mystery. He embodied everything that affected/afflicted him in light of lifelong illness (Cystic Fibrosis) and his multi-faceted identity. Participants of all levels of body modification aspire to embody primal/animal forms or to visually convey the spirituality and imagination that resides internally. The association of pain or lack thereof is a physical and mental threshold that is to be recognized. Medicine unintentionally but implicitly depersonalizes pain by enshrouding it within its agency and anesthesia of high-tech valiancy. It removes its humanness and encourages us to forget that pain is not identical with illness when it is a real part of suffering and recovery. There is a bit of difficulty in letting medical experts handle pain, and chronic sufferers like Flanagan have taken catharsis, therapy and disassociation into their own hands in search of relief or release. 4.2 Emerging Bodies in Biotechnology-Art Media Disassociation with the present body through manipulation can also mark a time of transition into forming re-newed perspective upon it. Body artists, such as Orlan (France), have re-shaped and prodded themselves to discover new aesthetic meanings, internally and externally, in performative exploration and augmentation. S ince May 1990 Orlan has undergone a series of plastic surgical operations to transform herself into a new being, modelled on Venus, Diana, Europa, Psyche and Mona Lisa. Early portraits of her original face show that she herself is a conventional beauty. A western version of the “painless primitive,” in which pain or torture is inflicted to attain enlightenment, she demonstrates acute awareness, consciousness and ability to perform under surgical circumstances that would be deemed too excruciating to bear, even under anasthesia. As a performance artist, the focus of her work is to literally deconstruct the ideologies of beauty by piecing together upon her fleshy canvas and reconstructing the very definition of beauty. Her current morphological states have included space-alien temple implants and her pursuit to reconstruct her nose into the biggest protrusion yet.
Fig. 12 Considering what has been done on the fleshy surface in terms of body adornment, sculpting and mutilation, my personal work goes beyond the surface of the skin in terms of sexual assignments and dives into the molecular structure and the associating psychology of blood, skin and viscera. Tissue culturing, a relatively new field of biotechnology in laboratory sciences peaked my interest in the late 1990’s. Working in an art and science museum during that time in San Francisco, California, became the ideal research site for me because I was able to get first-hand observations on the culture of the laboratories and the public’s perspective on science and biotechnology. I was exposed to other research facilities in that city where groundbreaking research was being done in homologous systems, longevity and mutations of organisms. The way that I navigated around the laboratory and how exhibits were presented informed the theories I have developed to date. In relation to the body, the laboratory is much like a living being, despite its cold appearances: the scientist is an agent performing paternal and maternal duties of reproducing and protecting the cultures; the flow-hood is the mouth that breathes in fresh air to the inner sanctum; cellular media (nutrients) are the life-blood; the incubator is the body’s womb that keeps the cultures alive. Abuse of the laboratory body is sacrilege and it is generally understood that anyone entering the space show a level of reverence to it. This reverence is displayed through laboratory behavior, protocol, and iconic signage of the areas. Even the gesture of laboratory methods outside the institutionalized, scientific environment becomes a political act. Individual artists and collectives started exhibiting more “bioArt” (biology and art) in response to the rising popularity and lax regulation of genetically engineered foods, pharmaceuticals, bioengineering and technology. bioArt work isn’t just about presenting science in a public space but it also offers a forum to discuss how society as a whole is affected by emerging technologies. Only in the last half-decade has bioArt begun to be recognized as an art form. After working as exhibit support at a museum, I was able to pursue personal interests about tissue culturing and artificial organs for human use. Up until recently tissue culturing was mainly used in growing skin for grafts. Recent developments have shown the potential of human stem cells and entire organs are being researched and developed in vitro. However, the reality of application to a human patient is still in the distant future since current research is based on animal stem cells and the use/ethics of human stem cells is still being debated. As art and science take a collision course into the future, artists and philosophers are rethinking issues of natural evolution, human control and new symbolisms. Collectives such as the Critical Art Ensemble (USA) use performance, satire and political activism to present scientific information/experimentation in an exhibition setting. The Tissue Culture Art Project (Australia) successfully integrated an art and research space within the science department of the University of Western Australia. vivoLabs (USA), of which I am a founder, establish relations inside and outside the laboratory and art studio to create work that is critical of cultural and political influences upon the body.
Fig. 13
The primary tissue culture project of vivoLabs is hymNext TM Designer Hymens, a conceptual piece that went through its first installation at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute of Troy, New York, in 2004. With the guidance and collaboration with Helen Hong, Ph.D. of the Stegemann Laboratory, the project also questions the aesthetics of visualizing culturally charged images created with biological materials. In context of the body, the hymen is neither inside nor outside. In deconstructive philosophy, the word ‘hymen’ is a Derridian term referring to a hypothetical position neither here nor there, identifying no signifiers, concluding undecidibility in the discursive space. Postmodernism lays in this position: it doesn’t sway to any side, and remains decentralized. The hymNext TM hymen is symbolic of the fact that it does not belong to the inside, outside or center of the body. It belongs to no definite side. As an object of discussion, the hymens are reassigned new meanings in sexuality - at this point the philosophical maneuver thus departs the deconstructive approach of concluding undecidibility. In biology, it is a membrane that is neither inside nor outside, its function still a mystery. A personal theory is that the membrane acts as semi-enclosure where beneficial, vaginal flora can grow in a young female until she becomes of mature and menstruating age. Culturally speaking, the hymen symbolizes purity of the woman (if intact), or of impure sexual status (if absent before wedlock). The presence of a hymen acts as a badge or proof of virtue. In many cultures, the value of a female is dependent on this thin piece of membrane. The absence of one can be devastating to her reputation and family that may lead to social rejection or even death to her. The one-time, sacred breakage of the hymen also represents the surrendering of the female as property and of sexual loyalty to the masculine counterpart during ritual consummation. However, the hymNext TM hymen does not subscribe to the traditional representations and taboos revolving around the membrane. While many modern cultures still regard talking about sex and genitalia as taboo, it crosses that boundary by drawing specific attention to the “dirty” region between the legs and the dangerous sensuality associated with it. The artificial replacement hymen symbolizes the redefining of new, sexual beginnings for womenand men. Treating the hymen as a replaceable object and creating a piece that implies repeated events of defloration may be abhorrent to some but celebratory to others. Women can mentally re-virginize their sexual being despite the rupture of a hymen due to an unsatisfactory sexual past or trauma. Men can re-virginize too, for the similar reasons. But folks also like using physical aids – on repeated occasions. Whether it is called fetishization, or symbolic appropriation, people will employ objects of significance to their activities to enhance their experience. The first installation of the hymNext TM Designer Hymens invited the viewing audience to enter the impromptu laboratory environment. The set-up consisted of the growing hymens in Petri dishes, displayed in a tabletop incubator, within a customized flow-hood to maintain a sterile area in the corner of the room. Viewed on the walls were prints of: a schematic of hymen replacement upon a human; images of studio/laboratory culturing methods; documentation of the first prototype application and “defloration” of a human volunteer (whose orifice of choice was: his nose). The prototype hymens are constructed of rat aortic cells (smooth muscle tissue) and a collagen extra-cellular matrix.The creation of living art allows exploration into understanding the molecular relationship between animal and human organic systems. To me, this is an intimate communication between tissue cells in the pursuit of survival within a closed system. To illustrate this, I created the hymen constructs with animal cells and my vaginal scrapings. Although the artwork is not for human application at this point, the creation of the hymen is very real and goes beyond transubstantiation or gesture. Cells extracted from my body are placed upon a biodegradable scaffolding to support cellular adhesion. The nutritive media is lifeblood to the cells that will culminate into an organic form. Regardless of human and animal antigen histology and quantification of formulaic invention, the organic forms will proliferate and create a new “body” in a novel environment. 5. Challenges Personally, I faced challenges of how to come to terms with extensions of the body in the laboratory, in my art and the controversial cultural symbols that I chose to challenge. To balance out the high-tech explorations of my art research, I created an alter-ego back in San Francisco, named Madame Oculara, to embody the timelessness of the enigmatic magician, shaman, healer who transcends time. In 2002, she started as a performance character that was associated in the hi-tech, magickal sideshow of a macabre-cabaret troupe in San Francisco. Along with the other oddities and medical anomalies pickled in jars or stuffed and put on display, she and the co-performing “scientist” would attempt to create transgenic, double headed fish embryos on stage with the help of bad science and cabaret. Of course the survival or birth of the mythical creatures remained a mystery. In 2005, “The Unusual Apothecary of Madame Oculara” was displayed at the Contemporary Artists Center of North Adams, Massachusetts. The two works (The Apothecary and hymNext TM) were also a part of the collaborative show with David Balluff called, HOKUM. The Webster Dictionary defines “hokum” as, “ something apparently impressive or legitimate but actually untrue or insincere; nonsense.” The works were displayed in a larger organization of snake-oil, side-show environment that intends to confuse the attendants of the validity of claims made in any of the assumed products. David Balluff created his own personality, the Reverend Hugh Pokrit, and hocked his religious wares and ideas of how to prepare for the rapture. Unlike the recognizable apothecaries that would carry herbs, insects and animal parts for medicinal uses, “The Unusual Apothecary of Madame Oculara” a fictional work, was part archeological dig, part anthropological display, part voodoo ephemera, that displayed various magick, healing boxes that seem antiqued but with hints of modernity. Confusion of time was intentional so as to entice the viewer to believe that Madame Oculara may still be around. The visitor approached the healing boxes and accompanying images to unfold a probable story by way of their own presumptions upon the imagery and perspective on displayed body parts, some clearly identifiable and some not so clear. It was up to the visitor to figure out the intentions of the healing boxes and to create a personalized mythological view of who Madame Oculara was. One of the boxes was called “The Repentant’s Box: 20 Lashes.” In it, there were 20 jars of slashed and burned flesh surrounded by reptile skin situated on a shelf in front a hellish, judgment scene. Another box, “Skin and Bones” contained: studio-made rotting skin, real rodent bones, mannequin fingers and actual mutating frog embryos. Infliction of pain and averting bad voodoo was the intent of the “Masaket (Pain) Box.” Notable items in it were surgical instruments, feline testicles, human hair, a feather and a hellish scene that lined the antique box. Associating the contents with an apothecary that would usually dispense powders, herbs and medicines to the ailing, the visitor can only speculate what Madame Oculara’s purposes were for her odd healing items. Each body part, identifiable or not, were positioned to signal the viewer to dive deep into his own psyche and reason to figure out what each item symbolized in association to medicine and magic. In addition to the boxes was a reptile spirit house that enclosed a snake that guarded the apothecary. Its cage was adorned with a wood-cut scene of tormented souls in purgatory bearing chains, purgatory being a place neither in hell nor heaven. The Apothecary was created to demonstrate the on-going conflict and interconnectivity between the mind and body, pain and healing.
Fig. 14 The works, hymNext TM and “The Unusual Apothecary of Madame Oculara” will continue to develop into larger exhibitions as the collection of hymen research grows and Madame Oculara continues to show up in unexpected places. The hymNext TM hymen prototypes are currently going under histological analysis to see how long the human-animal cellular specimens can co-survive in vitro. The challenge to address culturally constructed perceptions will still play a major role as the exhibits are developed to engage the visitor on a more interactive or tactile level to access the art. The activity poses as a way to engage the viewer to interact with the work and then leave the exhibit to contemplate his own conclusions about the relationship between the mind and body. The difficulties of understanding the inter-workings of body and mind are twofold. As we finally understand that the mind-body split is detrimental to medical administration and whole-body well being, the rise of technology and virtuality places the human form in a precarious position of reality once again. New modes of communication will be developed and the issues of what is sacred and sacrilege in respect to the body will be up for debate again. The expression of these concepts in artwork, through traditional and emergent forms alike, herald new cultural ideologies and may terminate outdated ones. Body Symbolism will never be a static discipline. In fact, as world cultures mature in tandem with technology, corporeal definitions will be even more complex. Cyborg bodies, prosthetics and transplantation, once only reserved for medical and scientific utilization, will increasingly become a part of body culture and define new groups within already diverse societies. The languages of magic, religion and superstition will expand exponentially in relation to the changing iconography of the body. |
Fig. 7 
