When does aggression and sexuality combine in an aesthetic way to create a performance that transcends the label of Art? In an act of this magnitude, it can sometimes be hard to differentiate between a performance and a pornographic scene. While artists do not contemplate the latter, it can be very easy to cross the thin line between beauty and what is ordinary, or in worst cases, between fiction and reality. Violence in art is a thin line that can be easily crossed by some.
Pornography, following the philosopher Byung Chul-Han’s vision, is not obscene or vulgar, but rather what is revealed is the human spirit. The person is completely open and susceptible to life and ultimately becomes a product. On the one hand, the immediacy of a fully exposed body eliminates any sense of worth, and the person can be reduced to an object whose only function is to give pleasure. On the other, the overexposure of the body can erase any erotic fantasy and sexuality can border on the grotesque. Therefore, working with sexuality in the artistic world can be a complicated endeavor.
Despite all of this, some artists have tried to break the mold, but as they are left exposed and vulnerable to the world, those that surround them are blinded by the possibility of pleasure and commit acts that cross the limits.
The following violations are not only delegated to the sexual level, but rather any attempt against the physical or mental integrity of the artists. We present the men and women who suffered objectification, and the horror of being attacked by others during their artistic act.
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Emma Sulkowicz
To demonstrate how the limits disappear when a person is tempted with sex, Emma Sulkowicz exposes her violation in a project called Ceci N’est Pas Un Viol.
She denounces what happened one night in August 2012, and leaves it exposed to the eyes of all. This video is not there to be observed, but to tempt the human instinct, and force an insight into how far a person is willing to go for their libido. Emma says, “if you see this video without my consent, I hope you think hard about the reasons as to why you turn me into an object and become a participant in my rape.” If you asked for permission from Emma, you can watch the video here.
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Yoko Ono
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYJ3dPwa2tI
In 1965, Yoko Ono carried out in New York an act called Cut Pieces. In it she sat on the stage and invited the audience to cut pieces of her clothes. At first, people timidly climbed on stage and cut a small piece, but as time progressed it became more frenzied to the point that an audience member cut her underwear.
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Marina Abramovic
In 1974, Abramovic worked in a project called Rhythm O, in which she placed 72 objects on the table and told spectators, “I am an object, do with me what you will in the next six hours, and I assume all responsibility.” Some of the objects were benign, while others were lethal, including a loaded gun. Luckily, Marina came out alive, but with deep wounds. In an interview after the act, she confessed she continued to have scars from the wounds inflicted by the spectators. “The public can kill. This is what I wanted to see.”
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Sophia Hewson
This young British girl filmed a “representation of rape” to show that a violation is more than a sexual act for it is the pillar that sustains patriarchy. Therefore, it is the battlefield where masculine dominion must be dismantled. The video is a close up of her face while the act is committed.
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Shia LaBeouf
The actor asserts that an unknown woman raped him during one of the performances he starred in at a gallery in Los Angeles in 2014. “A woman decided to whip me across my legs for 10 minutes. Afterwards she removed my clothes and proceeded to rape me. There were hundreds of people waiting in line when she left the room. I was alone in the dark, following the theme of the exhibition. It was unpleasant for me and for her observant partner as well,” Shia declared in the Dazed and Confused magazine.
These are the artists that were violated during their performances, but they are not the only ones. In this world, day after day thousands of people suffer from a violation that irrevocably changes their lives forever. To support them in an artistic manner, photographer Grace Brown created a photographic series called Project Unbreakable, where she gives a voice to the victims of abuse. Her work is not only about women, but also all the people who have suffered sexual violence, child abuse, or have survived domestic violence. In the words of Grace, “this act provides a healing effect to the participant because each person that is involved says exactly what they lived through during their violation.” Discover her work here.
