Orlan-Feminist Artist

Orlan
Orland is a French artist whose work is about the body, and she uses her own body as a medium to analyze both female stereotypes and the concept of female beauty as something imposed. As many feminist artists, Orlan has not used traditional media like painting or sculpture; instead, she has been using alternative visual media to represent her body. Orlan uses plastic surgery as a medium to explore the idea of beauty in different personages from the Renaissance. The artist has created several performances in which a medical team carries out plastic surgery on the body, and most of the time on the face of the artist. Orland has performed nine plastic surgeries - each one has been video transmitted live to different galleries and museums like the Pompidou in Paris. In each of these performances, the audience was able to ask her questions through a video conference about the performance and interact with her at the same time that the surgery was taking place. The post-surgical (painful) period was an important part of the performance. Orlan incorporates pain as an important part of this performance to emphasize the lengths that women will go through to fit themselves into the male definition of beauty.
In the scope of her work, Orlan has used various media like video, video conference, digital photo, the Internet, and plastic surgery.
References
Review/Art; Surgical Sculpture: The Body as Costume
Smith, Roberta. New York Times, New York, N.Y., Dec 17, 1993. p. C.31.

Flesh & Feminism: Abstract (Summary)
Carey Lovelace. Ms. Arlington: Spring 2004. Vol.14, pp. 1 – 65.
Wilson, Stephen. Information Arts: Intersections of Art, Science, and Technology: MIT Press, 2002.