Andres Serrano was another artist that I found that used bodily fluids in his work. On this occasion it was a photograph of a crucifix plunged into a jar of piss. This piece of work created a big outrange among Christians because of his disrespect towards Christ. But after reading behind his meaning I can understand what he was implying.
“The thing about the crucifix itself is that we treat it almost like a fashion accessory. When you see it, you’re not horrified by it at all, but what it represents is the crucifixion of a man,” Serrano told the Guardian. “And for Christ to have been crucified and laid on the cross for three days where he not only bled to death, he shat himself and he peed himself to death. So if Piss Christ upsets you, maybe it’s a good thing to think about what happened on the cross.” (Holpuch, A. 2012. The Guardian.)
Whilst re-searching about Blood, I though it best to broaden my search criteria to all bodily fluids, to assess everything that has gone before, so I have enough knowledge and supporting evidence.
I came across some very disturbing artworks one from artist Piero Manzoni, who created Artist’s Shit in 1961. I am amazed that this is considered to be art as it is ‘shit’. But it is on display at the Tate gallery. The Tate gallery only have 1 tin (number 4) of the 90 tins that were made which contains ‘Artist’s shit’.
‘ In December 1961 Manzoni wrote in a letter to the artist Ben Vautier: ‘I should like all artists to sell their fingerprints, or else stage competitions to see who can draw the longest line or sell their shit in tins. The fingerprint is the only sign of the personality that can be accepted: if collectors want something intimate, really personal to the artist, there’s the artist’s own shit, that is really his.’ (Letter reprinted in Battino and Palazzoli p.144.)
One of my ideas from working on ‘period’ made me evaluate my material. What if instead creating red dots with acrylic I created the dots using blood. I spoke with my tutor about this in a tutorial and there would be procedures for heath and safety that I would have to approach to make sure that everything is above board, so to say. I did a little research into artists that have used blood within their work and came across an artist called Vincent Castiglia. His work is very impressive and you would not imagine that the work he’s created has been sourced from his own blood. It weird and wonderful. Some of the images are a little disturbing, but I suppose working with blood the correlations works well. Vincent Castiglia said that “he sees his methods as putting ‘psychic energy’ into each piece.”( Reynolds, E. 2015, Mail online.)
He also has his own webpage at:http://www.vincentcastiglia.com/about/
At the start of this project i had a clear idea in my head of what i wanted to achieve. As time has gone on that idea has changed a thousand times over. The subject of female nude is still very strong but the outcome of my work is taking on different directions.
INFLUENCE
My original idea was to focus on the muscular form of the female nude. The reason i chose this subject was down to the influence from my dissertation. I suppose the whole idea of how the female nude was portrayed intrigued me. Jenny Saville creating these monumental physical images of un- idealized women with meaty flesh tones and over exaggerated proportions and unusual angle points that force’s the audience to acknowledge her. In comparison to Lucian Freud who depicted the truth in his paintings, surrounded by his familiar settings that allowed the audience to view the subject in a realistic environment so the viewer can engage/ relate and the woman exposed and identifiable. And then there is John Currin that portrayed his female nudes in an idealized manner with traditional methods using smooth porcelain skin and slender bodies, using pornographic images as source material to push his subject further.
MY OWN IDEAS
Reviewing my project, i have decided to explore other idea’s, but still keeping with the subject on the female nude. Creating mind maps have helped me build connections and links between words that i would like to explore. I know that time is ticking before the degree show but i feel that i have to make these connections in order to strengthen my art work. In an idealized world i would be able to spend the time to make myself into the project. What i mean by this is i would love to train and discipline my body so that i could use myself as source material, become the project of a muscular female nude. But we don’t live in an idealized world and i don’t have the finance to pay for a gym membership to attend 8hrs a day or to get the results I’m looking for in time for the degree shown, but i am going to give it a go an monitor my results. Running along side this incase it fails, i have reviewed the pointillism works on `Period’ and decided that i can relate this into my current work. Instead of using paint i could use blood or referring back to Jenny Saville use of `meat’ within my work to give it an added edge. More research is needed.
