The sacred body

Abstract

The development of modern art over the past century has been towards a greater emphasis of the artist's gesture as integral to the meaning of a piece of art. The primacy of action, and hence, the body, to the artistic process provided the precursor to the birth of performance art in the 1970's. In the body of work I created, titled The Sacred Body, I peel back the various elements and constructs surrounding the art object to arrive at constructions that vacillate between action and object, noun and verb, presence and absence. Through the pieces I correlate the intentions of diverse groups and artists such as the Gutai Group, Yves Klein, Robert Ryman, and others.