Body Art History

Body Art History Biography

Tattooing and other practices understood broadly as ‘body arts’ (including but not limited to branding, scarification, piercing and even body painting and cosmetic surgery) have long been a source of popular and academic fascination, most usually discussed in anthropological, criminological, psychological or sociological contexts. Yet though the common phrase ‘body art’ used to describe tattooing and its coincident technologies is familiar and comprehensible, scholarly work which deals with the vernacular body arts using methodologies which are explicitly art-historical and art-theoretical has been all too infrequent.

This seminar presentations a diverse range of papers from scholars and practitioners, many of whom explicitly apply the critical approaches of art history and material culture studies to the body as an art object beyond a delineated artistic context, in reference to specific case studies and in the context of broader theoretical concerns. Speakers will address tattooing and other body arts and bodily practices, their practitioners, their practices and their products, and will  consider, for example, questions of aesthetics, authorship, ownership, value and the status of the body as an artistic object; the applicability of artistic methodologies to the lived body; tattooing in performance art; and tattooing and other body-art imagery in historical contexts.

The session will also include a special screening of the short documentary Skin, which follows the heavily tattooed Geoff Ostling in his decision to donate his tattooed skin to the National Gallery of Australia on his death.

Body Art History

Body Art History

Body Art History

Body Art History

Body Art History

Body Art History

Body Art History

Body Art History

Body Art History

Body Art History

Body Art History

Body Art History