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Corporeality “All around, silent, still, intense, people are watching him, as blood trickles from his arms. He stands at their centre. They surround him. Not too close, never too close. Separated by an invisible boundary, as blood trickles down his arms. Out from inside. Trickles down, quickly” (Harradine, 2000, p.72). Blood flows through the performance of Franko B. As previously discussed it is laden with religious symbolism but today it also has political significance. Blood is charged with many meanings especially since the endemic spread of HIV and AIDS within the predominantly homosexual (as initially reported in Western Society) community. The body as socially constructed within the norms of the heterosexual hegemony is engaged within a constantly included (normal) discourse as opposed to those of the excluded (other, homosexual).The abject is associated with those that are excluded, and the continuing hysteria between blood, HIV and AIDS, infection and contagion and homosexuality continues to reinforce homophobia within the heterosexual hegemony. It is perhaps too easy to connect Franko B’s work with HIV and AIDS. B openly admits his homosexuality but strongly denies his work has any link with AIDS succinctly stating “my work has fuck all to do with AIDS” (B quoted in Campbell and Spackman, 1998, p.67).
Artists have consistently attempted to represent the corporeality of the body; religious iconography depicts the wounded flesh and blood of Christ. Christopher Prendergast refers to a remark made by one of Titian’s contemporaries regarding his representation of flesh and blood “It is to me as if Titian in painting this body has used flesh to make his colours” (Cohen & Prendergast, 1995, p.9). More recently Francis Bacon has created harrowing paintings of the human form in its most carnal state. Roy Boyne refers to Bacon’s representation of the body and in particular the mouth “a side to side slash in a mass of suffering meat, bone, blood and nerve” (Featherstone et al, 2001, p.290).
For Franko B his blood is used in the same way as a painter uses pigment, it is a material he uses to make his work, and he describes his body as a canvas. B’s performances are closely monitored by his doctor, there is no threat to his life, but obviously, each performance is of short duration. B states “Because I am using blood it is very important in a way that I use my blood (sic)” (Franko-b, 2003).
Blood is as much a symbol of life as it is a symbol of death. In a situation that is beyond your control, how would you react when confronted with and witness the reality of a wounded bleeding body? We exist in a society that has become desensitised to images of violence and death, we are constantly subjected to these images but observe them in a detached way. For death is as much a part of living, but particularly in Western culture it has become removed and separated, almost hidden away, it is viewed negatively within society, it is something we would rather not have to experience! Regardless of all the keep-fit regimes, medical procedures, potions and dietary supplements we are encouraged to subject our bodies to in pursuit of the perfect body and eternal youth the only true certainty in life is death. This ‘real’ body that Franko B presents to us challenges our perceptions of the unreal body presented to us everyday in the media and in technologically generated images. Baudrillard (Poster, 2001) refers to this simulation as threatening the difference between the ‘real’ and ‘unreal’. How aware is society that the body, our own bodies have become the only true reality. Franko B presents his body to us, it is not re-presented. Isn’t B’s performance saying this is a ‘real’ bleeding /wounded body. Franko B (Heathfield, 2003a, p.38) refers to his performances as presenting his body in its most carnal, bloody, extreme state; he affirms that his work is not about death, he says he wants “to make the unbearable, bearable”; that he wants the viewer to question their comprehension of “ beauty and of suffering”.
For Franko B the abject is a state of being both subject and object, in effect B can be seen to be almost dissolving in his own blood, dissolving the boundary between inside and outside, and does not this dissolution of these boundaries emphasise their fragile state? Is it also possible that these dissolving boundaries refer not only to the body’s boundaries but also to the abjected ‘other’ within society? Can the wounds on the artist’s body become a metaphor for the wounded in the wider context of society today?
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Introduction |
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Copyright © Franko B 2007
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