The Body/Embodiment:

the physical structure and material substance of an animal, living or dead. Crosses over with themes of identity and performativity. The relationship of body and mind has been explored through feats of physical endurance and the ability of the mind to suffer pain. In the 1960s women focusing on bodily themes brought to attention the physicality of the female body through exploration of sexuality. Artists use the body as a site for social discourse, as a tool or medium (could be just part of the body), and to question or define beauty. To embody is to give a concrete form to an idea or spirit.

Joel Peter Witkin

Witkin's photographs deal with themes of death, corpses, and deformed people. The photographs themselves are physically altered to parallel the physical state of the bodies. His work with corpses has earned him the nickname Modern Day Dr. Frankenstein. These grotesque bodies are marked by life events; in these works we are viewing bodies as separate from our own.

Marina Abramovic

Abramovic subjects herself to extreme physical and mental stress. In the 1970s, she started using her body as the medium for her work. In The House with the Ocean View, she lived in a gallery installation for 12 days. Viewers were invited to watch her go about her daily existence. With her partner Ulay, she challenges the limits of the physical body in pieces such as Breathing In, Breathing Out and Relation in Time. 

Janine Antoni

Antoni creates work that explores the unattainable standards of youth, beauty, and proportion. Like Abramovic, her primary tool is her own body. In Lick and Lather, Antoni creates self portrait busts of chocolate and soap. The use of these art objects removes her identity associated with the reproduction of her facial features. In Loving Care, she mopped the floor with her hair drenched in hair dye. Chocolate Gnaw, Lard Gnaw shows the artist's teeth marks in the blocks of materials. This provides visual evidence of the means, the duration, and the intensity of her sculpting process.

John Coplans

Coplans challenges ideals of healthy and beauty with the inclusion of aging bodies into his contemporary photographs. With black and white self portraits, he asks viewers to engage with bodies that aren't typically portrayed in the media. The fact that he never photographs his face allows his images to not focus on a specific identity.

Maureen Connor

Maureen Connor is the only artist I chose who represents the body without actually using the body. In Little Lambs Eat Ivy, she uses clothing and fabric to suggest femininity and control. Thinner Than You, a stainless steel and cloth sculpture, represents the female body as a changing container.