The Power of Body Transformations

With the repeal of Roe V. Wade and Affirmative action, and the constant attack on transitioning/transitioned persons, bodies and the identities inhabited within them are under attack. This panel seeks to reaffirm the significance of artists who sacrifice their own bodies for activist expressions. From James Luna’s use of his body in poignant and darkly satirical interventions in works like Artifact Piece and Take a Picture with a Real Indian, or Catherine Opie’s raw and rapturous cutting of her own body in Self-Portrait/Cutting, materializing the shame in diverging from the traditional domestic family, contemporary artists have harnessed their own bodies as a response to the ever changing political environment. Body-based artists and performance artists of the post-modern and contemporary eras demonstrates how oppression is not solely felt as a mental or emotional strain but also a physical one.

This session seeks to historicize, consider theoretical frameworks, and give space and appreciation to the artists willing to provide their own bodies as edifice to the treatment and oppression of marginalized people, asking the question: what does it mean to sacrifice one’s self physically, emotionally, and/or symbolically. We invite submissions that expand upon how artists shape, act upon, and action their own bodies as a form of artistic activism along with those exploring questions addressing the possible ramifications this type of artistic manifestation has on the artists themselves, artistic institutions, and/or canons. Proposals may consider the work of artists from any geographic region worldwide from 1950 to the present.