In 1990 Orlan became the first and only artist to have explored plastic surgery as an artistic medium. From 1990 to 1995 she had 9 plastic surgery operations. Each operation altered a specific facial feature. She took elements from females portrayed in famous western art; she changed her mouth to resemble Francois Boucher's Europa, her chin to look like Botticelli's Venus, and her forehead to copy the protruding brow of Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa, except she made this feature a lot more exaggerated with implants in her temples that look like horns.
She documented her operations in the form of disturbing photographs and videos. She turns her plastic surgery procedures into performances. Each "performance" is carefully choreographed. Famous designers such as Paco Rabanne and Issey Miyake have also designed costumed for Orlan to wear during the surgeries. Orlan reads poetry aloud during the procedures whilst music is played, fully conscious of the events taking place (only local anaesthetic is used). She uses all the waste from her operations to make new art. She has made blood drawings and has vials containing her flesh, fat and blood which have been displayed in exhibitions.
In one of her performances she read out this extract from the book The Dress: "I have an angel's skin, but I am a jackal; a crocodile's skin, but I am a puppy; I have black skin, but I am white; a woman's skin, but I am a man. I never have the skin of what I really am. There is no exception to the rule, because I am never what I have". I interpret this as meaning what nature gave you physically does not truly reflect your soul" Orlan uses plastic surgery to create her “own inner portrait” on the outside.
Below is an interview with Orlan and a film of one of her plastic surgery performances:
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Research Analysis:
Women often use plastic surgery to be socially accepted. Orlan does not use plastic surgery to make herself more beautiful, but to challenge our narrow minded view of image and beauty. I am creating a fashion image. Increasingly in fashion today, the ideology of beauty is becoming more diverse, with different looks constantly being presented. In my styled photo shoot, I do not want to present a previously conceived ideology of beauty, but an image that is different to those regularly portrayed in the media. Orlan's work relates to mine as it is highly conceptual. Her work also relates to mine as it is very thematic; in one of her surgeries she is dressed as a Madonna figure, holding up a large black cross in one hand and a white cross in another. Her work is also a confrontation against nature; she does not settle for what nature gave her but explores and expresses the inner self through her exterior image. My work is very much the same in a way, although I am not going to the extremes of plastic surgery. I am altering and manipulating a person's exterior in the form of makeup, hair and dressing to form a new image and artistically express this person's inner self.
Research Resources:
http://www.orlan.net/
http://www.english.ucsb.edu/faculty/ecook/courses/eng114em/whoisorlan.htm
http://www.english.ucsb.edu/faculty/ecook/courses/eng114em/surgeries.htm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/jul/01/orlan-performance-artist-carnal-art
http://www.jolique.com/orlan/skin_deep.htm
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4816435/ns/health-cosmetic_surgery/t/artists-plastic-surgeries-defy-beauty-standards/
http://theirishcritic.com/new-york-theatre/feminism-and-representation-an-interview-with-orlan/
http://www.izinsizgosteri.net/asalsayi37/Kubilay.Akman_ing.37.html
http://www.squidoo.com/Orlan
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