| Plastic
Surgery As Performance Links Although the first 'technical' plastic surgery was performed by Dr. John Peter Mettauer in 1827 (cleft pallette operation), the French artist--Orlan--boosted the practice to the level of performance in 1990. Her theatre is her body, which has undergone a series of transformations over the years--Venus, Diana, Europa, Psyche and Mona Lisa. Documented in video, photo, and her living form--Orlan's work is supported by the French Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I am drawn to Orlan's work as it comments on the theatriciality of 'altering yourself' by portraying it as such. The implications of physically changing your features include some desire to become someone else, to put on a permanent (some-what) costume that empowers the mimesis of your ideal 'person'--inside and out. The graphic nature of the surgery (exposed in her documentatio) heightens both the narcissitc aspect of the operation and the desperate desire lying behind it--to what lengths will people endure pain and grotesque science for the need to become a 'better other.' Submitted
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