ORLAN - The Reincarnation of Saint Orlan

This project of ORLAN's was a series of cosmetic surgeries compiling different aspects of beautiful women's faces from classical paintings. 

 

"Orlan's goal in these surgeries is to acquire the ideal of female beauty as depicted by male artists" 

"Of the operations performed so far, one altered her mouth to imitate that of François Boucher's Europa; another "appropriated" the forehead of da Vinci's Mona Lisa; yet another imitates the chin of Botticelli's Venus. These models were not chosen by Orlan purely for their ideal beauty, however, but also for their mythical and symbolic connotations. Venus was selected for her symbolic notions of fertility and "Europa because she looked to another continent, permitting herself to be carried away into an unknown future" (Rose, 85). Yet another surgery, the widely publicized "Omniprésence," which took place in November of 1993, implanted protrusions in her forehead to mimic the protruding brow of Mona Lisa. Naturally, Orlan's was more exaggerated: rather than a gentle protrusion, the end result was two symmetrical horns."

I find this project really interesting, and it relates really well to my essay and practical work as I think it relates back to the fact that the ideal woman is comprised of parts of several different women, and thus ideal beauty is not attainable. It's especially interesting and relevant as instead of using contemporary women / models / ideals of beauty ORLAN takes the beauty standards of classical paintings. From ORLAN's site: "Carnal Art is not against plastic surgery, but opposes its standards such as engraved in the male, but particularly female flesh", the project seems to me a comment on how men rule over beauty standards for women and while we may know this of today it highlights how it has always been this way. Though ORLAN imbues the parts with her own aura, by not using each element just because of their ideal beauty but because of the meanings of each woman. 

The practical work I had an idea for is similar to this, but with less surgery as I'm unsure college would accept me having mass amounts of surgery just for this module. It would be more focused on the body and the idea of making a cut and paste woman, I'm thinking in an activity book style.