{"id":4282,"date":"2022-04-04T10:20:09","date_gmt":"2022-04-04T10:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/?p=4282"},"modified":"2022-04-04T10:21:03","modified_gmt":"2022-04-04T10:21:03","slug":"the-body-as-an-artwork-the-body-as-a-community-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/the-body-as-an-artwork-the-body-as-a-community-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"The body as an artwork \u2013 the body as a community experience"},"content":{"rendered":"

Once again, it is a novelty experience to go to a physical exhibition. No other exhibition could have been more appropriate than Daniel Lismore\u2019s \u201cBe yourself, everyone else is already taken\u201d (what a title!). The focus in the exhibition is on the body, more precisely on Daniel\u2019s body as an artwork, but the bodily experience relates also to the visitors moving in the exhibition space with other bodies, the feeling of proximity, the random encounter, a frown in someone\u2019s face, the smile in another, the overhearing of a comment. This is what makes people connect, and more importantly, this is what makes meaning. It helps you form your own view by being immersed in snippets of other visitors\u2019 experiences alongside your own. It is a sort of community I experienced when I visited Daniel\u2019s exhibition, however fleeting this experience may have been. I was part of a \u2018community of interest\u2019. This community membership really crystallised by visiting a physical show.<\/p>\n

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I was stunned by the intricate detail of Daniel\u2019s dresses. There was a lot of armour, a lot of glitz, and a lot of stuff. In most dresses, the body was entirely covered except for the eyes. You could really feel the richness and tensions Daniel weirs on the outside, but which probably reflects a lot of what goes on in the inside. Daniel mentions in this TED talk, \u201cI don\u2019t like my body, so I cover it\u201d. I am sure many of us can empathise with this sentiment. Have you ever noticed that when you catch a glimpse of yourself from the back, you may not even recognise yourself? I think we have a very two-dimensional, flat view of ourselves.\u00a0 But in Daniels dresses you see the whole three-dimensional person. Details are not confined to the front of the dress, which strikes me as a differentiator of his artwork to a simple or not so simple dress-up. \u201cI am not a drag queen; I am a living sculpture\u201d underpins this position.<\/p>\n

I was absolutely stunned by the costumes for the Harrison Birtwistle’s opera: The Mask of Orpheus.<\/p>\n

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It is really worth listening to Daniel’s TED talk and check out his website\u00a0https:\/\/www.daniellismore.com\/about<\/a><\/p>\n