A Chinese artist has literally taken himself to the cutting edge of art and slices himself. He Yunchang opened himself up in front of an audience and cut out one of his own ribs. Incredibly, he carried out the “performance art” without any form of anaesthetic. Then he really did add to his body of work by wearing the rib around his neck.
He cut a metre-long gash from his neck to his thigh after stripping unclad and lying on a trolley before asking the audience to vote on whether he should carry on.
There were 12 votes in favour of the work and ten against, with three abstentions, and he cut himself open.
Chinese blogger and art consultant Mélanie Wang posted: “Before the execution of this operation, there was
a pseudo-democratic voting procedure.
“According to the artist the vote was under the guise of a democratic process to decide whether he was going to perform his work or not.”
The artist said afterwards: “Artistic performance can be distinguished from everyday life only when it is given a certain intensity. I want my work to move people.”
He added that the work – he called it “One-Meter Democracy” after the length of the cut – was designed to highlight the “tension between the individual and the state” in China.
He is now one of China’s leading performance artists, known for performances designed to test his strength and endurance.
He has had himself cast inside concrete for 24 hours and tried to “cut a river in half” with his own blood while suspended from a crane.
He said: “I feel China is a very complex society, one in which it is important to use your body and your intellect so you can stop and face its reality.
“Highlighting the body in this way, as separate, is also important because, historically Chinese people have not endowed the physical body with value, rather they have valued the spirit of the Chinese people, as a collective.
“Contemporary China is much more individual in its thinking, so it’s a pull between the two. By putting pressure on an idea about myself, my intellect, and my own body, I can make it into something much larger.”
He cut a metre-long gash from his neck to his thigh after stripping unclad and lying on a trolley before asking the audience to vote on whether he should carry on.
There were 12 votes in favour of the work and ten against, with three abstentions, and he cut himself open.
Chinese blogger and art consultant Mélanie Wang posted: “Before the execution of this operation, there was
a pseudo-democratic voting procedure.
“According to the artist the vote was under the guise of a democratic process to decide whether he was going to perform his work or not.”
The artist said afterwards: “Artistic performance can be distinguished from everyday life only when it is given a certain intensity. I want my work to move people.”
He added that the work – he called it “One-Meter Democracy” after the length of the cut – was designed to highlight the “tension between the individual and the state” in China.
He is now one of China’s leading performance artists, known for performances designed to test his strength and endurance.
He has had himself cast inside concrete for 24 hours and tried to “cut a river in half” with his own blood while suspended from a crane.
He said: “I feel China is a very complex society, one in which it is important to use your body and your intellect so you can stop and face its reality.
“Highlighting the body in this way, as separate, is also important because, historically Chinese people have not endowed the physical body with value, rather they have valued the spirit of the Chinese people, as a collective.
“Contemporary China is much more individual in its thinking, so it’s a pull between the two. By putting pressure on an idea about myself, my intellect, and my own body, I can make it into something much larger.”
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