Cuts: A Traditional Sculpture 2011
Antin’s performance (in which the artist photographed herself while dieting) responded to notion that Greek sculptors found their ideal form by discarding unnecessary material from their marbled blocks. Rather than crash diet, over three months I built my body to its maximum capacity. I did this by adhering to a strict bodybuilding regime, constructed by master body building coach Charles Glass. David Kalick, a nutritionist specializing in diets for sports competition, designed a diet where I consumed the caloric intake of a 190-pound male athlete. I also took mild steroids for eight weeks of the training.
I documented my body as it changed, taking 4 photos a day, from 4 vantage points. I collapsed 23 weeks of training into 23 seconds creating a time-lapse video (part of the 2 channel installation Fast Twitch Slow Twitch). Juxtaposed against the speed of the time lapse are highly stylized scenes, which play in painful slow motion that depict moments from my training- a raw egg dropping into a mouth or a decontextualized face as it “maxes out”.
When my body reached a peak condition in its transformation, I collaborated with photographer Robin Black to stage a homage to the Benglis’ Advertisement. Rather than buying advertisement space in Artforum, we will use Black’s connections in the gay fashion/ art publications (both on line and off) to disseminate Homage to Benglis. Substituting my ripped masculine physique for a double ended phallus, we will leak our image without disclosing anything about its subject but will link the image to our blog AND an AMAZING ZINE called LADY FACE//MAN BODY. Placing Homage to Benglis within these contexts signals the shifts in our cultural landscape, and the role of artists like Benglis in bringing about those changes.
Additionally many artist friends helped me generate documentation: Zackary Drucker, Rhys Ernst, Cathy Davies, and especially Robin Black.
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