Castration and Medusa

Orlan's Art on the Cutting Edge

Bibliographic Data

ID4577412
AuthorsDanielle Knafo (0000-0002-1663-7378, Long Island University, corresponding author)
Year2009
Volume10
Issue3
Pages142-158
Publication date2009-07-07
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueStudies in Gender and Sexuality (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1524-0657 • E-ISSN: 1940-9206
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/15240650902979251
OpenAlexW2081417970
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited17

French multimedia artist Orlan (b. 1947) literally altered her body and identity in the name of art by undergoing multiple cosmetic surgeries that replaced her features with those from art historical masterpieces. She transformed herself into an objet d'art as well as a site for public debate, thereby injecting a radical sensibility into Western art and its history. The provocative surgeries at the core of Orlan's “carnal art” both exemplify and expand Freud's notion of castration to include the wish to transcend gender and even the body itself. Like Medusa, Orlan confronts us with blinding images that compel us to question our assumptions about art, beauty, gender, identity, and technology. Her project shows us the fate of human embodiment in a posthuman age. In addition to elucidating her social, feminist, and aesthetic agenda, this paper clarifies her personal psychology and her work's effect on the audience

Aesthetics · Art · Beauty · Human sexuality · Literature · Posthuman · Sensibility · Sociology · Transgender · Art, Politics, and Modernism · Cinema and Media Studies · Gender Studies · Visual Culture and Art Theory

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