Body fluids in art
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Occasional use of body fluids such as blood, urine, feces, etc. in works of art is most common in shock art or transgressive art.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Examples
[edit]Blood
[edit]- New York artist Vincent Castiglia uses his own blood to make paintings,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and used it to make the artwork on the guitar of thrash metal musician Gary Holt.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- The Anguished Man, an allegedly haunted painting by an unknown artist, contains the artist's blood in its paint, according to its owner.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- The Flaming Lips released a limited run of vinyl records of the 2012 album Heady Fwends containing the blood of the musicians involved, sold for $2,500 each.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Urine
[edit]- Piss Christ, a controversial 1987 photograph by American photographer Andres Serrano, depicts a small plastic crucifix submerged in a small glass tank full of the artist's urine.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
- PISSED, a glass tube containing 200 gallons of the urine of Canadian transgender artist Cassils, was made in 2017 as a protest against a decision by the Trump administration to revoke an Obama administration executive order which guaranteed that transgender students could use restrooms that corresponded with their gender identity. It is currently on exhibition at the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Feces
[edit]- Artist's Shit, a 1961 artwork by Italian artist Piero Manzoni, consists of 90 tin cans reportedly filled with Template:Convert of his feces.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Breast milk
[edit]- In the work All You Can Feel, the artist Sarah Ancelle Schönfeld sprinkles exposed photo negatives with hormones or endogenous substances such as breast milk and pharmacological substances such as the contraceptive pill.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Human Fat
[edit]- Wenming zhu (Civilization Pillar) by artist duo Sun Yuan & Peng Yu. The work resembles a classical stone column, but it is in fact entirely composed of layers of congealed, gleaming human fat that was collected from plastic surgery clinics. <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Criticism and difficulties
[edit]Depicting objects of popular respect (religious subjects, flags, etc.) in art which includes body fluids can trigger public protests due to such material's historic association with dirtiness. The outcry about the Piss Christ photo is an example.<ref name="HighPerformance">Template:Cite web</ref>
In addition to the obvious difficulties of preserving perishable material, there can be regulations complicating transport by rail, truck, or aircraft of liquid body fluids due to the fluids' possible classification as dangerous goods.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The sale of blood art via eBay is prohibited as eBay prohibits the sale of body parts, and classifies blood art as falling under this heading.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>