Nia Burks: VCU Grad PHTO Research: The Word V. 3.0 (Part 2.3)- Perform

Artist 7
Alan Feuer
Alan Feuer is a writer for the New York Times. He is not a famous artist, nor does he intend to be. However he wrote a piece called "Where the Dancers Dress to Undress". In this somewhat cliched article, he goes backstage in the Hustler Club Manhattan to write a story about the back stage, pre performance, area of the club. A panoramic photo was shot of the dressing room as well. I am interested in the pre performance aspect of this topic.
****INSERT PHOTO******
Panoramic Crop of Huster Club Dressing Room, 2008
Link to Interactive Panoramic Photo:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/11/nyregion/11rooms.html

In any act of fantasy — from a feature film to a political campaign — there is a hidden place where the dirty work gets done, where the make-believe is made.
In Hollywood, this is the editing room; in Washington, the spin room. At Larry Flynt’s Hustler Club, a strip joint on Manhattan’s West Side, it is the dancers’ private dressing room where the image of available sexuality and the naked facts collide.

Tucked behind a closed door upstairs from the dance floor, the dressing room is a shrine to female beauty — to the tireless attempts to tease the hair into a proper state of sultriness and adjust the bosoms upward at just the right incline. It is a small piece of the contemporary demimonde (strippers nibble take-out food in thongs and gold lamé). Near a plastic bowl of pretzels, a topless beauty steams the wrinkles from her ball gown with an iron. A tall brunette in nothing but a G-string wanders by. She is brushing her teeth.

Feuer, Alan. Where the Dancers Dress to Undress." New York Times 10 Nov 2008

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Artist 8
Jeanette May
Using chicken eggs to represent human ova and cook book like layouts, Jeanette May makes artwork that critiques contemporary fertility issues within American women today. In my opinion, she is commenting on the "baby maker" road laid before many women from the time they were children and using humor to remark about the absurdity of the idea of women conforming to this formulaic performance of body and gender while bringing in issues of class and business for discussion as well.

Time to Procreate, 2005-06, 20x40inches, photo

Where Babies are Made, 2005-06, 20x40 inches, photo

The collection from artist Jeanette May, entitled "Fertility in the Age of A.R.T.," uses both metaphorical and literal images such as Easter eggs, sonograms, fish and super heroes to represent nature, culture and technology. "A.R.T." stands for assisted reproductive technology.

The exhibit uses humor and different media to illustrate how natural reproduction has changed into two parts, science and business. Past issues of infertility are no longer a problem for those who can afford the technology. The exhibit focuses a great deal on the idea that better babies can be produced for wealthier parents.

The photographs progress in a timeline that begins by illustrating reasons for infertility and moves into solutions presented by modern science.

Barone, Adam. "Humor proves fertile ground in Robin campus art exhibit." Roosevelt Torch. 24 Feb 2008. 11 Nov 2008 .

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Artist 9
Janine Antoni
Lick and Lather is a piece that blurs the lines of performance and sculpture. Antoni makes work almost exclusively using the body as a medium mixed with ideas of femininity. For Lick and Lather, she had busts of herself cast in chocolate and soap. She then used the busts for soap in showers and food to lick, this creating a discussion about the relationship with the self.

Installation and detail views of Lick and Lather, sculpture/performance, 1994

wanted to work with the tradition of self-portraiture but also the classical bust. So the way I made it is I took a mold directly from my body. I used a product called alginate, which is the kind of material that you might be familiar with when you go to the dentist. That sort of minty tasting stuff. It’s an incredible product because it gets every detail, every little pore. I even casted my hair. So I started with an exact replica and then I carved the classical stand. I made a mold, melted down thirty-five pounds of chocolate, poured it into the mold, and when I took it out of the mold I resculpted my image by licking the chocolate. So you can see that I licked up the front and through the mouth up onto the nose, over the eye and back up over the ear onto the bun and then down in the back around the neck.

I also casted myself into soap. She started as an exact replica of myself. We spent a few hours in the tub together. I slowly washed her down and she becomes almost fetal because all her features start to be washed away. So I was thinking about how one describes the self and feeling a little uncomfortable with my outer surface as the description of myself. And this piece very much is about trying to be on the outside of myself and have a relationship with my image. So the process is quite loving. Of course chocolate is a highly desirable material and to lick myself in chocolate is a kind of tender gesture. Having the soap in the tub was like having a little baby in there. But through that process I’m slowly erasing myself. For me it really is about this kind of love-hate relationship we have with our physical appearance.

Art:21, "Lick and Lather." The Artists. Art:21. 11 Nov 2008 .

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Artist 10
Lonelygirl 15
For my final artist, I would like to highlight one last "performance" that could not exist without the digital world and the idea of "truth" within that, editing as form and basis for constructed, choreographed performance. This work functions much like my own in that way. However this work is different, in that it challenges our perceptions of reality.