Stelarc's Suspension performances took place from 1976 to 1988, in Japan (where he was living at the time), Europe, the United States, and Australia (where he's from).
His aim was to introduce the concept of the body as a structural object (sculpture), and as an evolutionary architecture that could be manipulated to expand human experience.
He began his performances using ropes and harnesses to support his body, but soon discovered Hindu Indian piercings as a means of elegantly suspending the body, using his own skin as the support structure for his performances
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In Painting Face Down - White Line (1972).
Paul McCarthy lies, face down, and gradually spills the contents of a paint can filled with white paint on the floor of the gallery space. He drags his body through the paint he spills, creating a white line.
In this work, he not only comments on what might be considered the process of abstract painting, but also on the relationship between consumerism, consumption, and it's effects on society.
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photo by Leslie Hasbim
In Loving Care (1992), Janine Antoni performs at Anthony D' Offay Gallery in London. She submerges her long dark wavy hair into a bucket of Loving Care hair dye. She then mops the floor with her hair, writhing and twisting her body, to cover the gallery's floor. Gradually, as she marks her territory with a beauty product that women use to appear more youthful and attractive to men, within a space that is traditionally dominated by men's work, she executes great feminist power by pushing gallery visitors out of the room, that now inhabits her "women's work".
