Art & the body

What is body-based art? Surgically grafting an ear onto an arm? Exploring human rights or gender identity through performance? Contemporary dance interwoven with light and sound? Challenging preconceived notions about sexuality? In all of these cases, the body is a powerful site – and instrument – for art. In this discussion, performance artists take to the stage to talk about how their bodies have influenced their art, and about the body as a site for extreme performance.

In association with Arts House as part of FOLA – Melbourne’s inaugural Festival of Live Art – burlesque star Moira Finucane, physical movement artist Natalie Abbott, famed bodywork performer Stelarc and Casey Jenkins, the artist behind 2013 vaginal knitting art project Casting Off My Womb, come together to explore the human body as an expression of and location for art to take place. Here, the boundaries of how the body can be a means of artistic expression are challenged.

Hosted by curator/producer Julianne Pierce.

Art & us.

The nature and meaning of art has been hotly debated for centuries, but in this new series for 2014, the Wheeler Centre explores the impact of art in a variety of contexts. We look at how artistic practice fits in to the many diverse aspects of everyday life, as well as how its context has a direct effect on the realms of inspiration and creation.