As artists investigate the notions of personal and global identity in artwork, often the use of the body becomes, at some point, a medium or subject matter in how each artist expresses themself. While the use of the body in art can be visually literal, like a shadow or figurative image, many artists practice body art which involves using one’s body with other media to create art, or using the exploration of physical changes and limits to make art that becomes a commentary on those observations. Artist like Janine Antoni and Stelarc, who are among prominent artists who practice these artistic values, have made an effort to create discourse about how we perceive the human body, how we relate to it personally, or how it might be improved or changed. While Antoni’s work mostly deals with exploration of the body and its elements as both evidence of her identity and as a tool for connecting with her identity and history, Stelarc uses his body to make work which experiments with the value of the human body, its capabilities, and how science and engineering might change the physical limits and therefore value of the human body.

If Stelarc and Janine Antoni were to engage in a conversation about the meaning of the body and Identity, some very important and contrasting ideas might be brought to the table which could answer questions about the value of body art or artworks concerning the body: What is the role of the body in art? How is the body perceived and how do those perceptions relate to identity in artwork? Is technology an element of art or merely a tool for making and influencing it?These are probably the main questions which both artists’ works bring to mind.

Janine Antoni would probably approach the first and second questions with a handful of answers. It is evident in her work that she sees the body as both a tool and exploratory medium for her art making. The way she uses her own body for art could even fall under the categories of performance art or art as a process. For Antoni, using her own body as subject matter, as a tool for performance, or to create anthropomorphism in her works, means using her body to create a mold or interacting with replicas of her own body to explore her identity and perception of the nature of her own body. A prime example of Antoni’s replication of her own body is her work Lick and Lather. In this work she uses molds of herself to create a chocolate bust and soap bust, one which she licks repeatedly and the other which she washes herself with. She claims that while licking and lathering are both intimate and somewhat nurturing actions, while she performs them she is also slowly erasing herself in those forms. So, Antoni is exploring the physical body as means for understanding her own identity in art. Both Janine Antoni and Stelarc use the body as the subject matter in their art, but use it to create underlying concepts for the value and meaning of the body.

Loving Care (1992)[1] and Lick and Lather (1993)[2], by Janine Antoni. In Loving Care, Antoni paints the floor with her hair dipped in hair dye. She is using her body as a tool for art and making commentary about the way we perceive our own personal beauty. In Lick and Lather Antoni lick a chocolate bust, and cleans herself with a soap bust portrait of her own face. These pieces are commentary on the irony of self-image and how the artist can nurture her own body while destroying a representation of herself.

Stelarc would answer the first and second questions quite differently however, than Janine Antoni. He perceives the body as a stupid tool which he can improve upon and therefore use as a medium for experimentation for improving upon how he perceives the universe around him. Stelarc’s earlier works, which involved body suspension and overcoming pain through physical and mental strength, pushed the body to its limits while creating a spectacle for viewers. While using other objects, like large rocks and ropes, to offset his weight, Stelarc would suspend himself from hooks in the air. In terms of his own identity, Stelarc might say that these tasks of overcoming physical and mental pain gave him more control over his body and improved upon his understanding of how to use it better. Other body art Stelarc initiated involved cultivating and transplanting a human ear onto his arm, as well as wiring a robotic arm into the muscles on his shoulder, both which he learned to control. Stelarc, not in the same way as Antoni, seeks the limitations of his body and the extension of it through science and technology as a commentary on both the body’s usefulness, and how future technology might be combined with the body to create new and amazing advancements.

In Images 1[3] Stelarc suspends himself from the ceiling, counterbalanced by rocks to test the limits of his physical pain and his mental capacity to overcome it ,and in image 2[4] Stelarc explores the abilities of his body when combined with scientific and technological advances. His work is a commentary on the limitations of the human form and how they can be improved.

More than likely Stelarc would say that not only are technology and science influential upon art, but more meaningful than art or the body together because it can improve both and expand upon how both are used and perceived. Janine Antoni might not disagree, though her use for either is minimal compared to the prominence of both in Stelarc’s work. Antoni’s work, while it may not use technological advancements in the same way that Stelarc’s does, speaks to the natural technology and function of the human body. In works like Loving Care where she paints the floor with her hair dipped in hair dye, Antoni is using the body’s natural tendencies and movement to create work about how we adapt our bodies and take care of our bodies to change and maintain part of our identity. Stelarc would say that there is, so far, no end to the possibilities of how we might change and advance the original nature of the human body by expanding on its strengths and eliminating or compensating for its weaknesses.

Both Janine Antoni and Stelarc, however greatly their use of the body in art contrasts one another, would both argue that it is not only essential in art but also necessary to continue to use the body and explore its many uses and functions. The body should be applied to art and experimented upon for the sake of art.

[1] “Janine Antoni,” last modified December 30,2010, http://washspring2011.blogspot.com/2010/12/before-january-21-listen-respond.html

[2] “Feminist Art Base: Janine Antoni,” http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/eascfa/feminist_art_base/gallery/janineantoni.php?i=647

[3] “Stelarc: Still Hanging Around,” last modified March 23,2011, http://www.bornyesterday.ca/cyberstage-archives/2011/3/23/stelarc-still-hanging-around.html

[4] “Stelarc,” last modified April 24,2011, http://kelley-art100.blogspot.com/2011/04/stelarc.html