Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. I wanted to explore the temporality of life and art. I had blood drawn from my body until it equaled the amount of blood that would be in the body of an adult male such as myself. I froze the blood and then sculpted it into a bust of my face. I put it on display in a refrigerated cube. To me, the piece was significant because it contained the material that made me an individual, my DNA, but at the same time, it wasn't permanent. As I will someday die, my piece could also be destroyed (thus die), if it were to be unplugged and allowed to melt.
2. I was ripped from my motherland, Cuba, at a young age. I never felt like an American, nor did I feel like a Cuban. I sought to reconnect with my heritage and with the earth itself, which inspired my 'Siluetas.' I made impressions of my body in the earth itself (sand, mud, streams, rocks, etc) before adding outside components (paint, fire, water, etc) to personalize them to myself and my experiences.
3. I created several 'Anthropometry' pieces in which I instructed the art creation process rather than participate in it. I credit myself for each piece that was completed. In one instance, I instructed a nude model to roll around in my signature blue paint before instructing other nude models to drag her painted body across the canvas, creating an artistic expression of painting without the previously necessary 'artist' and 'paintbrush.'
4. I have executed hundreds of conceptual self-portraits whereby I assume the role of all different kinds of people. Nearly all of my pieces are named as "Untitled," some followed by the number of the piece itself if was part of a specific series. I am known for specifically making works significant to representations and understandings of women in our culture and the media and I am true chameleon.
5. I suffered from cystic fibrosis my entire life, and was forced to endure medical examinations, prodding, and objectification from the medical industry since childhood. I was no stranger to physical or mental pain and anguish. As an adult, I became heavily involved in sado-masochism, which allowed me to explore and creatively express my feelings and experiences of pain, while offering candid humor and personality to an understanding of disease, suffering, and perseverance.
6. I create ritualistic experience art that crosses long periods of time and severely alters my daily life. I spent several years executing a piece about chakras, taking one part of my body and its corresponding chakra color and dressing in that color for an entire year before changing to the next. I also spent a year tied with an eight foot rope to the waist of a male performance artist; we eventually needed to bring in a mediator due to the impossibility of privacy and the emphasis on conformity.
7. While I received a lot of criticism from feminists when I created works using my body in the 1970s, I was diagnosed with lymphoma in the 1990s and executed my posthumously revered 'Intra-Venus' piece documenting my inevitable death from the cancer. I took photographs of my body so as to document the changes I was experiencing, and how this disease had robbed me of my youth, femininity, and beauty. I created object sculptures with the hair I lost during chemotherapy and painted self-portrait watercolors further showing how I was no longer conforming to the 'feminine ideal.' The most compelling aspect of this work was my documentary self-portraits showing my body being morphed, my hair being lost, and my life being taken away from me.
8. We posed as 'modern primitives' in a gold cage surrounded by people at the Plaza de Colon in Madrid. We spoke a made-up language, watched television reports about political and social unrest, and took interviews and photographs with onlookers. Those who saw us actually believed that we were members of a recently discovered group of 'savages' seeking culture, refinement, and a colonial conquerer. We wanted to put the exploitation of Latin America on display in one of the nations that robbed us of our riches, culture, and identity. The gold that was plundered and the bodies that were taken for slavery are all vital components in the overall aesthetic and concept we sought to convey. We merged history with modernity, and yet still managed to confuse, startle, and captivate the crowds.
9. My art explores two vastly different components. On one hand, I am fascinated with suspension, and have executed several pieces whereby I have suspended myself by inserting hooks through my skin and hanging in mid-air. In one piece, I spent rush hour suspended by a crane 50 stories above New York City. On the other hand, I also am fascinated with the merger of human and technological identities. I created a mechanical arm which I affix to my right arm. When synched together, I can write the same word using all three of my arms, thus doing something unheard of in medicine, science, and art.
10. I am exploring femininity and cultural ideologies by having my body surgically modified through plastic surgery. I transform the operating room into a functioning theater. I receive only topical anesthetics and remain awake throughout every procedure, even those that are done to my face (as most are). I fill the room with poets, jugglers, musicians, and my feminist surgeon. I sometimes have the surgeries shown live and I have been known to answer questions from people across the globe during the process. My work is steeped heavily in psychoanalysis and Lacanian concepts of identity and the 'mirror stage;' Recently my body has changed to include implanted horns on the top of my head.
Source: Author
KatieK54
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agony before going online.
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