Fed: Body art exposed in new museum exhibition

AAP General News (Australia)
02-10-2000
Fed: Body art exposed in new museum exhibition

By Judy Skatssoon

SYDNEY, Feb 10 AAP - "Glenda" reclines on the chair with her right breast exposed.

The piercer clamps her nipple and the needle slips through the delicate tissue like butter.

Glenda smiles with relief when the process, which takes only seconds, is over, and
glances down at the small silver barbell now adorning her nipple.

The procedure, and a range of other body modification techniques, can be seen on video
and live as part of the Body Art exhibition at the Australian Museum in Sydney from tomorrow.

The exhibition is not for the faint hearted, and even carries an M for mature audiences rating.

It brings the dark underworld of tattoo parlours, sexual fetishism, avante-garde performance
art and other body-modifiying sub-cultures into the public domain with a collection of
photographs and other often confronting exhibits.

But the show also provides a historical thread reflecting the long tradition of body
art from a wide diversity of cultures and practices from Chinese foot binding to African
head binding to Pacific scarification.

"Our primary aim is to get across the universality of body art," Trish McDonald, head
of the Body Art project team, said.

"It's a common human trait and something that distinguishes us from other animals,
the fact that we do things to modify our bodies."

The contemporary section of the exhibition was put together by placing advertisements
in the mainstream and street press to recruit subjects for case studies.

One of these is "Felina", who practices body modification by encasing herself in black
latex and using a corset to cinch her waist to a tiny 20 inches.

With cropped hair and a spiked dog collar, Felina looks a far cry from the qualified
psychologist she is by day.

The 28-year old got into her form of body modification through her involvement with
the fetish, B&D and S&M worlds - a scene she said was growing at a local level.

"It's so extreme, you're able to manipulate your body into something really distorted
yet feminine," she said, swivelling her wasp-like waist.

The exhibition also gives a glimpse inside the tattoo artist's world, with a reconstructed
studio complete with wood panelling, scary instruments and stickers bearing slogans such
as "I don't need a dog, I've got a bitch" and "be kind to your buds" imposed over a marijuana
leaf.

But tattoo enthusiast Graeme Kent, also featured in the exhibition, said tattoo studios
were no longer the sole domain of bikie gangs.

The 29-year-old food production factory manager described getting a tattoo like "having
gravel rash put on really slowly" and said each of his tattoos marked various "rites of
passage" in his life.

Eighteen-year-old Joanne Haldane sports blood red contact lenses, a diamante bindi
and 12 piercings, including two nipple piercings, a tongue piercing and a "madison" -
a barbell inserted through the skin over the centre of her chest.

"I've never had anaesthetic," she said of her piercings.

"It would be cheating, because the pain is part of the ritual. It's enjoyable."

While she has a while to go before matching "Paul" - whose 100 genital piercings will
be on display - she'll be a living exhibit collecting tickets at the entry.

Body Art is on display until June 18, when it goes on a national tour with details
of venues to be announced at a later date.

AAP jjs/tsm/ah/bwl

KEYWORD: PIERCING (WITH PIX)

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