Idea No. 9 Body as Surface

Honestly, I found this to be a kind of strange chapter. It discusses the use of one's body as art trough alterations such as cutting, tattooing and painting. I found it unusual that piercing and other forms of permanent jewelry we not mentioned here. Bird discusses how the body has been used as art to draw attention to issues such as sexuality and gender. I think that he makes an interesting point when he says as body images have become more common in mass media the human body as become a "highly politicized surface for art." He also discusses how tattoos have been used both as decoration and to signify status with in society.

I used to work a side job as an event planner for Indian weddings. As part of the job I wore a Sari and had my hands  painted with henna. I found this practice to be a really beautiful and amazing type of ceremonial use of the body as surface. While I am open to these types of non-permanent alterations to my body I really don't agree with the ideas of tattoos or piercings or any permanent alteration of the body. I do not consider myself to be a conservative person in the least, however, to me, permanent alterations to the body are disrespectful to our bodies. I do not feel right permanently altering my body because I feel as though it would not be fully accepting my body as it is. For this reason (and some others) I do not even have my ears pierced. Just to be clear, I do not judge anyone else who does have tattoos or piercings. I understand that they simply don't see this issue the same way that I do. 

Though this concept of body as surface is not one that immediately appeals to me I could possibly see myself using this idea in photographs of ceremonial aspects of body as surface. I do think that ceremonial body painting can be really beautiful and it communicates a lot about a culture. Overall, I find elaborate cultural and religious ceremonies to be really interesting. 

At music festivals I have seen naked people (usually women) who have painted their bodies in spectacular designs. While I think that this communicates something about females encouraging a sexually directed gaze I also think it can be a really interesting way to adorn the body. While I would never participate in this I think it is an intriguing use of the body as surface. 

Overall, I don't think this will be the most fruitful idea with in my own art, but it is good to think about the canvas in a different way.