Oooo(lala)rlan.

"Orlan is not her name. Her face is not her face. Soon her body will not be her body. Paradox is her content; subversion is her technique. Her features and limbs are endlessly photographed and reproduced; in France, she appears in mass- media magazines and on television talk shows. Each time she is seen she looks different, because her performances take place in the operating room and involve plastic surgery. What we actually know about the video- and- performance artist who calls herself "Orlan" is less than what is known about Orlon, the synthetic fiber whose trade name closely resembles her chosen alias. This assumed name, moreover, will in turn be altered: when the total self-transformation she plans is complete, an advertising agency will select a new name consonant with her new image"-Barbara Rose (Stanford article: "Orlan: is it art?")

Postmodernism is where we left off at the end of the week, and is where I shall begin my post. As I will explain next week, there are Post Modern artists, authors, musicians, etc. out there. Yet, postmodern art most interests me. Orlan, a French artist, is one of these postmodernists.

Orlan has been producing obscure, thought-provoking art since the 1960s. She is one of the most innovative artists of the postmodern movement. Her history remains quite sparse, choosing consciously to keep her history vague, and not even use her real birth name. It is suggested that using "Orlan" is what projects her to world-famed status. Beginning in the 70s she started using her own body as a medium for art, particularly fond of the use of women in art throughout history. She arrives at using her body as her tool because of her influence from Duchamp and his idea of the "readymade," to which she also views her body as a readymade as well.



One of her most famous works is that which took place in 1993, titled the Operacion Opera, in which she received plastic surgery in order to showcase the narcissistic aspect and drastic measures people are willing to take in wanting to achieve the beauty of "the better other." Capturing the gruesome portrayals of surgery, she refers to this as "carnal art" and is also utilizing the medical/technological advances of culture to alter her body (post modern). She set out to obtain 7 of the art world's most iconic images of feminine beauty. For example: the forehead of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa and the chin of Botticelli's Venus. As a feminist, Orlan was questioning and examining the ideals of beauty. She was trying to suggest that the man's perception of beauty (these male artists), was skewed and impossible for a women to obtain. (read her manifesto of carnal art...she mentions embracing parody-HERE!)

(NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART !!!!watch the surgery here)

Another "cute" performance by Orlan, Le baiser de l'artiste, or 'The Artist's Kiss'
had an enlarged, life-size barbie style, photograph of her torso turned into a slot machine. After inserting the coin, one could see it descending through a tube linked to her reproductive organ. She would then award them with a "French kiss," a real one, as she suggested. Men were bothered by this, while women loved it.




oh, Orlan. you truly are one of a kind.