Forget the canvas. Our body is enough to house paintings and act out performances worthy of being called art.
Forget the canvas. Our body is enough to house paintings and act out performances worthy of being called art.

Photography by Alina Gross. Art by Evgenia Winkelhöfer.
Photography by Alina Gross. Art by Evgenia Winkelhöfer.
Body art. When we say this term, we think of many different things, such as tattoos, scarification (a body modification technique which consists of producing scars in the body using sharp objects), piercings… The possibilities are not endless, but almost. For the purpose of this text, we accept as a definition of body art every form of art made with or on the body, but leaving behind tattoos and other alterations - after all, there is a line that separates permanent body modification from temporary art. Now focused on what we can draw on the skin, and knowing that it will soon be gone, we may imagine recreational or even childish ways. Who doesn’t remember at birthday parties when we were kids that there was always someone painting moustaches and butterflies on the little ones’ faces? During Carnaval, for instance, it’s normal to see younger and older people with their faces and bodies covered by paint. Sure, when we describe body art as something done on the body it is predictable that we think of these… elementary alternatives. But the concept has much more to it, starting with the great historical tradition that is behind brush strokes on the skin.
It’s definitely hard to define how and when the body painting practice first started, but we do know it has been done for a long time in indigenous tribes all over the world. Actually, the use of henna extract to draw on hands, necks and feet goes back to ancient civilizations of Babylonia and Ancient Egypt, even though we link it to asian countries like India, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Across the Atlantic, native-american tribes like the Navajo or Cherokee painted themselves only on very special occasions. From charcoal, fruits and leaves pigments, they created pastes with which their faces were covered in preparation to go to war, religious ceremonies or in rites of passage, like reaching adulthood. Just like other forms of art, these paintings weren’t done without their due symbolism, usually associated with certain colours: red, the colour of strength and power, was used in battles and when hunting, just like black; white was the colour of prosperity, and purple, associated with magic and spirituality, covered the faces of participants in religious ceremonies. A bit further South, in Oceania, aboriginal tribes also harvested from nature the materials needed to create coloured pigments which they used in certain ceremonies, such as a boy’s circumcision. The Australian natives are experts when it comes to embellishing the body, be it with jewellery made from shells and feathers, or with scars done on purpose. When it comes to body art, it also served the purpose of revealing their status within the community.
In western societies there isn’t such a past with similar traditions. And yet, body art is a common practice, not only in kid’s parties. Besides music festivals, where it is usual to find a mix of this practice, protests are also a way to “give your body to the manifesto” through painting. In several PETA demonstrations, participants covered their bodies in paintings imitating animal fur. What started out as a mere form of artistic expression quickly captured the attention of those who took body art as a challenge to perfect the technique until it became just as realistic as a renaissance painting. More artists specialized in this kind of art came about, who switched out oil paint for makeup. Joanne Gair is a makeup artist and expert in reproducing reality in her model’s bodies. Her technique has reached the cover of Vanity Fair, when she painted an entire suit (with vest and tie and all) on Demi Moore’s naked skin - so realistic that you can only tell it’s paint if you are up close. Gair’s fame can also be due to her work Disappearing Model, which premiered in 2000 in the show Ripley’s Believe It or Not!. In this piece, the artist places a model in front of a floral set and paints the woman with the intricate pattern, so that she is completely camouflaged in the background.
But Joanne Gair is only one of the many names who stand out when it comes to body art. If there is a moment in pop culture that we (also) remember for art painted on the skin, it’s the song Somebody That I Used to Know, by Gotye and Kimbra. It’s been 11 years since it was released, but it’s hard to forget not just the lyrics but the video clip: the two singers, who we first see in front of a white wall, are slowly being covered by the colorful pattern we see in the background. Emma Hack is the artist responsible for creating the art that took a full 23 hours to finish and that half the world applauded for its originality - the video won, for instance, the award for Best Video at the Australian Recording Industry Association. Hack paints bodies as true canvases, reproducing idyllic scenarios filled with flowers and nature elements, abstract brush strokes and even tiles inspired by Portuguese architecture, which she got to know in trips through the Iberian Peninsula. Polish Ewa Partum takes the concept of body art and merges it with performance art. One of the many results is Change, a performance done in 1974 in which, with the help of a makeup artist, she painted half of her naked body so that it looked aged. Afterwards, in front of an audience, Partum presented her skin as a work of art part of the feminist movement.
But body art is also about using the body as a tool. We put brushes aside: here, the skin commands the canvas. Yves Klein is a great name when it comes to this way of creating. His series Anthropometry, which began in 1960, is made up of paintings produced in front of an audience, as Klein instructed his models to touch the canvas in certain ways. His “human brushes”, as he called them, were naked and covered in paint (a blue patented by the artist as “International Blue Klein”), therefore leaving a trace in the painting, according to his instructions. The result is cheered on still to this day. Through this hybrid form of body art and performance, we come to the unmistakable queen of performance art, Marina Abramović. The Serbian artist dedicates herself, from the start of her career in the 70s, to exploring and challenging the limits of the body, as well as investigating the relationship between the artist and the audience - and so Rhythm 0 was born, a performance done in Naples in 1974, where the body was the piece with which one would communicate. For six hours, Abramović stood in the studio, close to visitors who could use a few objects to interact with the artist’s body: “There are 72 objects on the table which can be used on me as you desire. Performance. I am the object. During this time, I take full responsibility”, was to be read in the instructions by items as mundane as a comb or lipstick, and others less expected, like scissors or a kitchen knife. At first, the reaction was caring - visitors started out by offering Abramović flowers and kisses - but it soon became violent and the artist ended the performance with her clothes all cut up, slits all through her neck and rose thorns in her belly. This was only one of many performances of the Rhythm series, in which the Serbian submitted her body to the will of another, using it as a tool to create works of art. Or is it by itself a work of art? Just like Abramović proves, anyone can use their body to create something new. Next time you draw a cross on your hand to remind yourself of an appointment, maybe draw a few more and wonder: “Am I an artist?”
Translated from the original on Vogue Portugal's The Body issue, published March 2022.Full story and credits on the print issue.
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