by Annette Basile
Worth: $14.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Stelarc Arcadiou
Intro:
Warning, arts doco
Squeamish? Easily grossed out? There’s really no other way to put it succinctly – this documentary about Melbourne body performance artist Stelarc Arcadiou is uncomfortable viewing.
It comes with a warning – two actually. First, a caution that what you’re about to witness contains nudity, body piercings and internal body cavities. The second is from a man who spray paints the words “Warning, arts doco” on a garage door.
Directors Richard Moore and John Doggett-Williams then open that garage door, and we are introduced to the world of Stelarc, considered a pioneer in his field. Moore speaks about Stelarc’s first public performance, which was in 1982 in Canberra, where he hung naked, hooks embedded into his skin, suspended within a gum tree. A crowd of around 200 or 300 looked upwards.
The work, says Moore, is “very theatrical” and he likens it to “a public hanging, or an execution, or a flogging.”
The doco very briefly covers some similar artists and it’s a couple of still photographs of Jill Orr, pictured hanging from a tree, that best illustrate Moore’s comments about public hangings. The film does raise that old chestnut, ‘What is Art?, and while the photos of Orr are challenging, they have artistic merit.
But it’s harder to see the art in Stelarc’s work. Watching him suspended over 11th Street in New York’s East Village – naked, of course, with hooks digging into his skin – makes you ask: Is this art or a stunt?
As well as the suspensions, there’s a great deal of work revolving around technology and robotics – from the extra hand (a mechanical appendage) to the prosthetic ear and microphone that are surgically embedded under his skin.
Stelarc Suspending Disbelief has been nicely compiled and neatly edited, and despite the discomfort, it’s interesting viewing and has an atmospheric, tense soundtrack. There’s quite a bit of interview footage with the man himself – some archival and some current. He’s an engaging character with an infectious laugh. “I was always interested in the body being both a medium of expression but also as a mode of experience,” he says. “I was always envious of gymnasts and athletes and dancers and singers, who, in a sense, expressed their artistry through their bodies …”
The aforementioned laugh adds a levity that punctuates his serious and occasionally pretentious comments – for example: “There is no longer any meaningful distinction between the internal and external spaces of the body.”
While Stelarc’s work is confronting, the most disturbing scene is actually performed by another artist, and it is pure schlock horror – the convincing illusion of an arm being chopped off. Be warned.
Cyprus-born, Melbourne-grown, Stelarc is an amiable chap, even if his work is perplexing. He deserves kudos for pushing boundaries, but really, after this, you may feel like heading to the art gallery for an exhibition from the Old Masters for some relief … and to forget that pesky old chestnut.
