Althouse: "10 Artworks Made with the Artist’s Own Bodily Fluids."

June 12, 2011

"10 Artworks Made with the Artist’s Own Bodily Fluids."

Yes, yes, ho-hum. We've heard it all before. Yawn. That's where I was until I got to #9.

31 comments:

David said...: Catering by Hannibal & Hannibal.; 6/12/11, 10:07 AM
Fred4Pres said...: Mama Mia, that is a spicy meatball!; 6/12/11, 10:19 AM
chickelit said...: #9: It's what's for Donner.; 6/12/11, 10:21 AM
galdosiana said...: Okay, I almost vomited when I got to number nine.

Hmm, I suppose I could have sold the end result in an art auction. Darn!; 6/12/11, 10:21 AM
Anonymous said...: Not to Godwin myself, but #10 will find that someone else did it about 70 years ago.; 6/12/11, 10:26 AM
Ron said...: sigh...I much preferred

"Before & After: The Photographs Behind Gil Elvgren’s 1950s Pin-Up Girl Art"

on the same page. Call me crazy!; 6/12/11, 10:26 AM
Anonymous said...: He ate himself. Andrew Sullivan is green with envy.; 6/12/11, 10:28 AM
KCFleming said...: When there's nothing left to shock with, depravity is the obvious next step. Suicide will be first, then murder, as art.

Once there is nowhere to go with this crap, perhaps quality and training and technique and wonder and awe will come back.; 6/12/11, 10:29 AM
Fred4Pres said...: chickenlittle--very nice!; 6/12/11, 10:32 AM
edutcher said...: It still applies:

Modern art isn't.; 6/12/11, 10:42 AM
Wince said...: Obviously, the government funding must be stepped-up, conspicuous by their absence:

Boogers, ear wax, puss, toe jam, navel lint, dingle berries, foreskin crud, vaginal cheese, sebum, eye sleep, mother's milk, tongue coating, tooth plaque, bile...

Oh, and tears.; 6/12/11, 11:15 AM
Andy said...: There was a Yale art student who "inseminated herself artificially as many times as possible over the course of nine months, during which she also induced abortions using abortifacient drugs" and used the material in an art project. It's possible that was a hoax though, and whether it was "the Artist’s Own Bodily Fluids" depends on how you think about abortion.

I've personally made art with blood and semen, and I have something urine-based I've been meaning to make.; 6/12/11, 11:26 AM
Fred4Pres said...: The Artist As A Young Congressman: Eat me!

I did it for art!; 6/12/11, 11:45 AM
Fred4Pres said...: I should have said "The Portrait of The Artist as a Young Congressman." Seems Tony is even more myopic than Joyce (in a different way of course).; 6/12/11, 11:53 AM
Wince said...: Load is the sixth studio album by the American heavy metal band Metallica. It was released on June 4, 1996... The cover of the album is original artwork entitled "Semen and Blood III". It is one of three photographic studies by Andres Serrano created in 1990 by mingling the artist's own semen and bovine blood between two sheets of Plexiglas... In a 2009 interview with Classic Rock magazine, James Hetfield expressed his dislike of the album cover and its inspiration:

"Lars and Kirk were very into abstract art, pretending they were gay. I think they knew it bugged me. It was a statement around all that. I love art, but not for the sake of shocking others. I think the cover of Load was just a piss-take around all that. I just went along with the make-up and all of this crazy, stupid shit that they felt they needed to do."; 6/12/11, 12:01 PM
Robert Cook said...: PISS CHRIST still looks beautiful, as did the Madonna and Child, also by Serrano.; 6/12/11, 12:09 PM
Anonymous said...: Most artists who use their bodily emissions as media are under the age of five.; 6/12/11, 12:36 PM
David said...: Oligonicella said...
Most artists who use their bodily emissions as media are under the age of five.

Ha! That sums it up.; 6/12/11, 1:07 PM
Royal Tenenbaum said...: It's insulting to call those works "art," whether it's a can of shit or Serrano's desecration of the sacred.

If anything can be art, then nothing is art.; 6/12/11, 2:04 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: Number nine: Is that even legal? Can you legally consume human meat?; 6/12/11, 3:51 PM
Palladian said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 6/12/11, 4:09 PM
Palladian said...: Medieval illuminators sometimes used earwax as an aid to tempering pigments when painting manuscripts.; 6/12/11, 4:09 PM
Anonymous said...: I think #6 is demeaned by its company--light art powered by a sweat-based battery. That's pretty cool and doesn't deserve to be grouped in with the rest of the crap (literal and figurative).

tim maguire (come on althou.se!); 6/12/11, 4:58 PM
Anonymous said...: I'm hoping that none of them got taxpayer-funded NEA grants.

Peter; 6/12/11, 5:39 PM
mtrobertsattorney said...: The last person to write anything really significant about art and beauty was Kant. (Incidently, he included gardening and home decorating as among the fine arts. No snob he.)

Were he around today, I suspect he would see this stuff as evidence that Western Civilization is regressing.; 6/12/11, 5:53 PM
Anonymous said...: "Pinched Loaf" by Titus.; 6/12/11, 6:07 PM
Royal Tenenbaum said...: The last person to write anything really significant about art and beauty was Kant. (Incidently, he included gardening and home decorating as among the fine arts. No snob he.)

Were he around today, I suspect he would see this stuff as evidence that Western Civilization is regressing.

You should read Roger Scruton (or check out his BBC special on "Beauty," which can be found on youtube).; 6/12/11, 7:02 PM
Henry said...: #10 is a Roald Dahl story. Look up "Skin".

Drioli opened his mouth to speak. No words came, so he shut it; then he opened it again and said slowly, "But how can I sell it?" He lifted his hands, let them drop loosely to his sides. "Monsieur, how can I possibly sell it?" All the sadness of the world was in his voice.; 6/12/11, 10:20 PM
A "Shotgun" Gold said...: There's been shitty art, and shit-art, since the cavemen. Anyone ever heard of coprolites? Every parent probably has has a child who proudly created and displayed some poop-pop art.

I see nobody has used spinal fluid yet. Probably because it requires a central nervous system. Something lacking in these "artists."

@Royal: Kant wrote something significant once? Really?; 6/13/11, 12:17 AM
Palladian said...: "Kant wrote something significant once? Really?"

LOL. Took the words right out of my typing fingers.; 6/13/11, 1:07 AM
Curious George said...: I just flushed a masterpiece.; 6/13/11, 8:04 AM