I Am An Architect, They Call Me A Butcher: The Artist’s Body As Site Of Resistance To Consumer Culture

Barry White
Trinity College Dublin
Department of History of Art and Architecture
2004
BA

Subject: Photography and Installation
Country: Britain and Ireland
Period: 20th and 21st Century

10,000 words

This dissertation explores the work of a number of contemporary artists whose work has a strong engagement with ideas relating to the body and its role as locus for numerous cultural forces. The work of Paul McCarthy is discussed in relation to the Disney Corporation and its sphere of cultural influence, taking Jean Baudrillard’s criticisms of Disney’s generation of hyperreal state of existence into account. The “Carnal Art” of French performance artist Orlan is explored against the background of cosmetic surgery as cultural phenomonen with reference to Susan Bordo’s theory of image normalisation. Then the body art if Ron Athey and Fakir Musafar as well as Stelarc’s work with human/ machine interfacing are explored in terms of their provision of theoretical futures for the human body. Finally, works by Jake and Dinos Chapman, Paul McCarthy and Tony Oursler are examined.

Irish Georgian Society

Education Theses Register

I Am An Architect, They Call Me A Butcher: The Artist’s Body As Site Of Resistance To Consumer Culture