There’s art that you hang in your house, and then there’s this kind of art.
Popular Chinese performance artist He Yunchang is known for doing crazy things, like encasing himself in concrete for 24 hours, but this just takes the cake!
The exhibition, called One-Meter Democracy, apparently seeks to show “tension between individual and state” because Yunchang took a vote before his performance to decide if he should do it.
So what did 12 out of 25 people vote yes on?
Under a doctor’s supervision, Yunchang cut a three foot gash WITH NO ANAESTHETIC from his neck to his thigh.
THEN he removed one of his ribs and now wears it around his neck.
He cut out his own rib!!!
Afterward, the artist explained:
“Artistic performance can be distinguished from everyday life only when it is given a certain intensity. I want my work to move people… I feel that China is a very complex society, one in which it is important to use your body and your intellect so you can stop and face its reality. Highlighting the body in this way, as separate, is also important because, historically Chinese people have not endowed the physical body with value, rather they have valued the spirit of the Chinese people, as a collective. Contemporary China is much more individual in its thinking, so it’s a pull between the two. By putting pressure on an idea about myself (my intellect) and my own body, I can make it into something much larger.”
So, there you have it!
We’re on board with his democratic cause, but the execution of it??? Eh, we’re not so sure.
Thoughts???
[Image via Getty Images.]
-
Categories
