Look Younger with Body Art and Tattos

Body Art explores the many different ways, both temporary and permanent, in which people modify, change, decorate and adorn their bodies. Earrings, nose-rings, bangles, bracelets, rings, tattoos, makeup, body and face-paint, nose-pins, hair, gold, silver, lip-plates, ear-weights, scarring, squeezing etc. across all sections of society and across cultures people decorate and transform their bodies.

People use many ways to decorate themselves like clothing, jewellery, tattoos, piercing, scars, plastic surgery and body painting. Body painting is the most temporary. Many designs painted on the body are specific to a certain event, or are used to mark a particular occasion. Temporary transformation allows an individual to create a different short-term identity.

Traditional Use

Many Aboriginal communities have been painting their bodies for thousands of years. For these communities, body painting is not necessarily just about visual artistic creativity, it relates to conventions, laws and religion. It is a means of communication. In dance, designs are used to change the surface of the body to tell a story. These designs are not exclusive to dance but are found on many different everyday and ceremony objects. Contemporary body painting in Aboriginal dance draws on these traditions.

Types of Body Arts

Piercing

Body piercing is a more widespread practice than the other forms of body art addressed in the exhibition. Ear piercing and nose piercing are especially commonplace among many different cultures. While the process of piercing can be significant in itself sections of the exhibition focus on the outcome of the process. Many parts of the body can be pierced and there is a great array of jewellery associated with piercing.

Scarification

The process of scarification involves an endurance of pain. This endurance often signifies a rite of passage and is a ritual, which is itself highly significant. The exhibition explores the diversity of designs and the meanings behind these and addresses the issue of pain and focuses on the importance of the process itself.

Tattooing

Tattooing is one of the oldest forms of body art. The impetus to decorate and adorn is essentially a human characteristic and is something that people have always done. For many people the designs and symbols of adornment can hold great meaning. Similar designs can be found across cultures but their meaning can be significantly different. Within cultures the meaning of certain designs can change across time. Mehandi [Henna] is also become for tattoo making in various countries.