I decided to do research into the French artist ORLAN. She is best known for her work with plastic surgery series that was called "The Reincarnation Of Saint Orlan" which started in 1990. The aim of the series was to transform herself through a series of plastic surgeries, taking inspiration and elements from various famous paintings and sculptures of women.
Orlan's aim was to accuire and represent the ideal of female beauty depicted by male artists. I find this concept interesting and powerful because it challenges the standard of body image that is set by society through the form of art, rather than the form of social media that society provides today.
Her images are terrifying, and offer an extreme insight into the lengths that people go to in order to achieve and chase the perfect image. She aimed to capture the chin of Venus by Botticelli, the nose of Jean-Leon Gerome's Phyche, the lips of Francois bouchers Europa, the eyes of Diane from French school of Fontainebleau and the forehead of Leonardo's Mona Lisa. She picked the features from these pieces of art "not for the canon's of beauty they represent but rather on account of the stories associated with them"
Even though Orlan's practice as an artist is extreme and often crazy, I enjoy her work. She challenged the images and features that are often perfected by male artists, and also managed to embrace these standards of beauty. A lot of classic art is considered beautiful and often focus around a woman.
I feel that Orlan's artwork is influential with my concept, and captures a sense of irony in a strange and thought provoking way. In one of my scenes for my storyboard, I was to have a strange and surreal part where the characters face morphes and contorts into what a realistic body looks like. I will refer to Orlan's pieces of work to capture the gruesome and bloody side of what women often chase to become perfect.
My next step is to review the body images represented in the animation that I mention in my essay.
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