"Sorry for Having to Make You Suffer": Body, Spectator, and the Gaze in the

Performances of Yves Klein, Gina Pane, and Orlan

Author(s): Anja Zimmermann
Source: Discourse , Fall 2002, Vol. 24, No. 3 (Fall 2002), pp. 27-46
Published by: Wayne State University Press

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/41389654

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 "Sorry for Having to Make You Suffer":
Body, Spectator, and the
Gaze in the Performances of
Yves Klein, Gina Pane, and Orlan

Anja Zimmermann

In artistic practices such as performance art, body art or action art,

the artist's body is used as artistic material. On the one hand, this
must be seen in the context of the use of new material in art after

1945: At this time, artists began working with material which was
"formerly rated as non-artistic and judged as 'poor' and
ephemeral"1 (Wagner 9). On the other hand, the use of the body
exceeds beyond these experiments with new materials and suggests
questions which evolve from the inseparableness of the body in and
out of an artistic context. One cannot limit the "body as material"
to its respective "use," for there remains a part which stubbornly
resists being used in the way paint, marble, soil or felt are manip-
ulated in the artistic process. Particularly in body art, aesthetic and
extra-aesthetic discourses are deeply intertwined. This becomes
obvious in the more overt aesthetic stratums of medical discourse

interested in the visual representation of the human body's inte-

rior by artists and anatomists.2
One of the most spectacular actions that involve the human
body in an artistic context is staged by the French performance
artist Orlan. Since the beginning of the 1990s she has undergone
cosmetic surgery several times, which has turned her face into a

Discourse, 24.3, Fall 2002, pp. 27-46. Copyright © 2003 Wayne State University Press,
Detroit, Michigan 48201-1309.

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 28 Discourse 24.3

physiognomic com
other female figur
always regarded m
suitable material f
(Sobieszek 276) . Her
of using the female
ferent from those t
feminist performan
By integrating thei
fuse several positio
artist, the materia
analysis has been c
subject- and object
move (Jappe; Jone
In this essay I will
the context of this
ticular with regard
I will reconsider some of their work in order to show how it is exem-
plary of the artistic investments in the connection of body and pain,
and to provide a theoretical and historical framework for Orlan 's vio-
lation of her own body. In addition, I want to show in what ways the
legibility of Orlan 's work is shaped by non-artistic discourses of the
body or "body-traditions," upon which "Omniprésence" is capable of
calling. It is necessary to dissect these traditions, whether semantic or
visual, in order to gain knowledge of the functions that the body in
Orlan 's artistic practice acquires.

Body Authenticity and Matters of Pain:

Yves Klein's "Fire Paintings"
and Gina Pane's "Norriture, actualités télévisées, feu"

In the early 1960s, Yves Klein began to experiment with fire. Work-
ing at the "Centre d'essais de gaz de France" near Paris, he was able
to take advantage of the facilities of this company while at the same
time demonstrating his intense interest in blending art and tech-
nological knowledge. In 1961, Klein was working on a series of "Fire
paintings" in which he combined principles of his well-known
"Anthropometries" with his interest in fire (Fig. 1). This is docu-
mented by the writings of Klein, as evident in "Le manifeste de l'hô-
tel Chelsea" of 1961 and his interest in the French philosopher and
scientist Gaston Bachelard. In Bachelard's text "Psychoanalys du
feu," Klein found ample reference to a philosophical tradition that
associates fire with "life" and "death," and most importantly,

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Fig. 1. Yves Klein at the Centre d'essais du gaz de France, Plaine-Saint-
Denis, 1961, working on the "peintures feux."
Photo: Pierre Joly, Véra Cadot.

ascribes to it the potential to transform materiality into immateri-

ality (Stich 223-231). Klein's interest in the alchemistic symbology
of fire further added to his fascination with fire in the artistic

process. As in the series of the "Anthropometries" in the "Fire Paint-

ings," Klein was working with two naked models. While in the
"Anthropometries" Klein applied paint on the model's bodies and
preserved their imprints on the canvas, in the "Fire Paintings" he
wet the canvas following the bodies outline (Fig. 2). Subsequently,
Klein treated the canvas with a flame-thrower on which the body
imprints remained visible, because the moistened parts of the can-
vas were less vulnerable to the fire.

Equally important as the actual work itself (the burned canvas)

are the many photographs that were taken during Klein's perform-
ance. Klein planned those shots meticulously and gave precise

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30 Discourse 24.3

Fig. 2. Yves Klein at the C

Denis, 1961, working on t
Photo: Pierre Joly, Véra C

directions, including th
fire-fighter gear. Klein
had already done during
the different roles of th
icon of respectability, co
Klein needed to operate
who held a water hose di
of a dangerous situation
the piece (Stich 226). Th
work with "living brus
female models in the se
control of a living artist
Klein's "Fire Painting
porary experiences of v

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 Fall 2002 31

Hiroshima bo
fire coulddo
Hiroshima b
burned bodie
in Restany 90
gendered sin
If one remem
be further an
(the female b
They form th
ferent functi
artist's body f
90), as Klein d
healthy com
becomes 'inca
(qtd. in Resta
The use of th
in the contex
ming from th
as "becoming
becoming fle
resenting so
Klein uses thi
for somethin
artist fears lo
tic experienc
becomes an
behind," as S
Other, capabl
as precisely th
lence and deliverance from this violence via a dehistoricized and
mystified concept of the (female) body.
At the beginning of the seventies, the female body ceased to be
an aid in overcoming the extra-artistically exercized violence
against the body and no longer held the promise of "wholeness,"
"presence," and "salvation." Instead, female artists began using
their own bodies to equate violence and death, which often
involved a simultaneously violated and violating body. In the
process, they came to realize that those "images and texts created
by women that deal with female body-experience have the tendency
to be more rigorous and independent if they are about the body's
pain"12 (Export 10). The conviction that conventional representa-
tions, particularly the male projections onto the female body, can-
not easily be challenged by seemingly authentic images of the

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 32 Discourse 24.3

female body has been

to work with "posi
body which re-artic
gration of the body
women have theref
tion of the female
(Export 14) precisel
tus as a symbol and
Gina Pane's perfor
(1971) seems to be
tion of these reflec
her body in pain and
lation of the body i
and representation
"Norriture, actuali
in a private apartm
large quantity of raw
In the second seque
the evening news,
from a lamp that wa
she tried to exting
her bare hands and
the concept of the
bank on this seeming
body does not figur
violation and destruction of human life shown on the television
screen, but it is itself violated. It does not have the function of "rein-
carnation" (as understood by Klein) and is therefore not a tran-
shistorical symbol of "salvation" but rather a catalyst which is meant
to abolish the distance between the participants and the suffering
and pain conveyed by the media.
Therefore, Pane's work seems to dissent from Klein's body
manipulations that are embedded in the traditional association of
matter with femininity (in opposition to the association of form
with masculinity). This philosophical tradition, which sees the cre-
ative process in highly gendered terms, is elucidated by Panofsky's
rendering of Aristotle's definition of the relation between form and
matter. Matter, so the argument goes, "yearns for its completion by
form like the female yearns for the male" (13) .4 Given this, Pane's
body occupies a precarious position: it is a female body, it is the
artist's body and it is the body turned into artistic material. At the
same time, the "immaterial" television picture is still confronted
with the "real" body and is mingled with a "new language" as
demanded by Pane (Künkler 203) .

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 Fall 2002 33

Fig. 3. Gina Pan

of Galerie Chris

This concept
Pane's investi
the wound. P
women are alw
lesser sex and
the phantasm
the castratio
therefore, be
"women" and
lation of the
struct a "whol
On the other
and re-create i
the passive sta
inflicted on it
Frau" (autonom
inflicted pain
éléments prim
dial elements
guage mentio
Many perform
with developi
was conceived of as central in the context of feminism, because in

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 34 Discourse 24.3

performance art th
ynist conventions f
sphere. The Austria
essential essay on
Actionism" as foll
Gesetzen der Werb
gehorcht, ist das G
that no longer confo
graces is necessary
Even if the similar
based language of a
man artist Friederike Pezold are remarkable, there are still
substantial differences between the particular artists. Pezold, for
example, was working in the early 1970s on a series of drawings,
videos and photographs entitled "Neue leibhaftige Zeichensprache
eines Geschlechts nach den Gesetzmäßigkeiten von Anatomie,
Geometrie und Kinetik" (New body-based sign language of a sex
based on the rules of anatomy, geometry and kinetics). In video
sequences like "fuß werk," "schäm werk," "nabel werk" (foot work,
vulva work, navel work) Pezold geometrisized details of her body,
like her nose, her finger or a part of her belly (Fig. 4). The viewer
is confronted with slow movements of different body parts which
cannot be recognized immediately and differ considerably from the
conventional cinematographic staging of the female body.
Like Pane, Pezold investigates a potential body language that
thwarts traditional modes of representing the female body. How-
ever, Pezold is referring to the body in terms of its different repre-
sentations, while Pane in "Norriture, actualités télévisées" is falling
back upon the body's capacity of literally embodying life, in other
words, the body's alleged closeness to reality as opposed to represen-
tation. In Pane's performance, the experience of the "immaterial-
ization" of human suffering in its medial representation is
contrasted with the materiality of her own body and its actual suf-
fering (in contrast to the absence of the suffering in Vietnam, which
is absent for the participants of her performance because it is only
represented on TV).5 The body, therefore, once again becomes
meaningful only by the confrontation of "real" and represented suf-
fering (read: the real and represented body). It thus refers to the
reality of the world that is represented - not to the representa-
tional quality of the performing body. The status of the female body
as always being already entangled in representational practice
remains unconsidered (Künkler 199) . Pane precisely hopes for her
performing body to be completely merged into "life." Her body, or
its violation, is thereby used as a final reference, as "reality," which

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Fall 2002 35

Fig. 4. Friederi
neue leibhaftig
"Expedition zu

can work agai

well as against
ance. Pane bui
aims at inflict
tion. One effe
cerns the pers
in the partici

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36 Discourse 24.3

acutely aware of hav

wound in another
human embodiedne
Pane counters th
sented pain (i.e., on
By using her own bo
body's pain (by pictu
(with its pain sensa
ception) into the pe
sive, literally pre-c
apostrophised sphere
body it seems to
sequence when Pane
perception are link
the television scree
abstraction ("withou
cuited with the bod
that vision no long
Pane, who is glarin
the bodily sensation
Pain is a perception
while visual percep
more remote or ind
dition (originating in
an eye placed in a tr
the senses (Schulze
tion between visio
of the French Revol
the transformation
mind (again as opp
aims to work against
tually subvert it.
In this regard, Pa
postmodernist arti
aware that "... the e
maintains the dist
look over the sense
about an impoveris
look dominates, the
Irigaray qtd. in Owe
she is trying to "giv
ity. Art is the privil
ern) belief in vision
('Seeing is believin

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 Fall 2002 37

visual practice
body with the
arrangement
However, this
been frequent
cisely this dou
sequently, as
becomes almo
Pane hopes to
sifies vision a
with the fem
touch with cl
and hierarchi
tion. In the ic
touch is not o
woman. In a s
example, Tac t
ing the hand
years later pa
passive pain,
(1754). The ac
becomes resp
mental pheno
sensory perce
warmth and c
be experienced
subverting th
sual perceptio
the effects o
attributions t
body, pain, an
formance, is f
first place.

"Sorry, for having to make you suffer"6

Orlan's Performances Of 'Painless Violation'
As An Anatomical Theatre

Orlan is an artist who seems to have given up the claim of the body's
authenticity which was the underlying principle of Klein's and of
Pane's work. However, Orlan's work is also to be understood as a con-
flict between extra-artistic experiences with the body (Körper-
erfahrungen) and its media manifestations. During cosmetic surgery,

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38 Discourse 24.3

Fig. 5. Orlan, "Omnipré

Copyright (с) by Vladim

which is transmitted l
who is only locally ana
dles different objects
via Internet and fax (F
spectator, for which p
stitute, allegedly do no
pain is not the point. M
says: "Long live morph
well documented recov
tered with bruises, on
which in Pane's perfor
catalyst, seems to beco
representation. Howe
ing pain to the spectat
"Sorry, for having to
which the spectator
Orlan induces is not
endured by the artist,
pain's representation
The most astonishin
Orlan undergoes ope
these, but that she p
artistic material. It se
dures of picture pro

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Fall 2002 39

relationship o
the scalpel be
Orlan 20) . Yet
feeding scienc
ing that does
with the scalp
cific ways the
Orlan underst
entific body d
into women's b
media, Orlan
three discours
the female bod
particularly w
(in German it
gery") alread
Although it t
temporary m
Orlan is doing
so-called trad
body suggests
Nevertheless,
artist and surg
separation but
"Omnipresenc
tic/medical us
or permutation
artist or phys
The represe
other words
corpse or of a
preparation o
dition that do
ical and aesth
and other vis
lapping.7 Wh
presentation
anatomist look
ical theatre lo
In Poulleau's
(1780) we see "
tation and ob
body onto whi
the target and

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40 Discourse 243

Fig. 6. Jacques Gondou

des écoles de chirurgi
Gabriel Polleau. Court
Bethesda, MD.

a mediator: the sur

groundbreaking work
century and the corr
thetic practices, stat
tors and architects. T
order to capture symp

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Fall 2002 41

Fig. 7. James E
96 X 78 in. Cou
Jefferson Univ

an acute sens
become visual
which takes u
depicted by P
This gaze at
Thomas Eakin
years later (F
corpse, but an
joke "operatio
fear of a rout
are executed
medical practi

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42 Discourse 24.3

of the Gross Clinic,

on the leg of a patie
cant. The lecture ro
nerable human bod
easily from an anae
a "theatre of the gaz
investigation differ
represented as dista
of the anatomy theat
tance by the means
Clinic" this distance
In contrast to Eakin
clarity. In his engra
information about
The distance of the
around the table on w
part of the engravi
opens up to a view of
the sky forms the ar
on the dissection ta
of the gaze and body
taught. It is importa
the gaze at the body/
In this regard, "Am
tion of knowledge p
the history of the fi
settings in which a
those settings and t
be localized in medi
The distance that
spectator and the de
of dissection, parad
imity. The breaking
skin and by taking
"look inside" stands
of knowledge in the
subject of works li
Fried commented o
say a melodrama, of
dramatic, about looki
representation, it is
lation of the (repre
in "The Gross Clinic
the body in the field

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 Fall 2002 43

geon "gives-to
power over th
As much as i
institutions f
of her own bo
see the artist
Body To Art"
letting it beco
ditional conne
body when i
within the tr
tion of the g
between thes
over the body
ographs the o
because lookin
performance
eral places ar
visitors of th
confronted w
open. The "vo
imized by the
and opened bo
constituent of
Therefore, t
the body's ma
judged within
tic experiment
operates agains
That is exactly
examined not
but also withi
ined in more d
as material in
intervention
attention can b
appealing to th
different bod
institutional a
ally unfold bef
as I have tried
us as artistic m
confluence wit
ized outside the confined field of art.

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 44 Discourse 24.3

Notes

I would like to thank Roswitha Mueller, Laura Katzman and Neil Vandermark
for helpful suggestions on the text.

1 "Zuvor als bildfremd bewertete und 'nieder' eingestufte, ephemere Materi-

alien."

2 Sigrid Schade and Silke Wenk have referred to the interconnections of aes-
thetic and medical discourse in her text on feminist art history. In another article on
Chracot Sigrid Schade deals with the structural similarity of the position of the artist
and physician in detail, and Julie v. Hansen convincingly argues for this association
of artist and anatomist by following the visual evidence found in the two paintings
by Adrian Backer and Jan van Neck that were created in the context of the anatom-
ical cabinet in late 17th-century Holland.

3" ... Dekonstruktion dieses weiblichen Körpers, als Auflösung des sozial bes-
timmten weiblichen Körpers. . . . "

4 " . . . die Materie 'sehnt sich nach der Form als ihrer Ergänzung, wie das Weib-
liche nach dem Männlichen'."

5 Pane described this as follows: "It's strange, we never felt or heard the news
before. There's actually a war going on in Vietnam, unemployment everywhere

Until this moment, they were anaesthetized in the face o

O'Dell 60).

6 "Pardon, daß ich Sie leiden machen muß." (qtd. in Dünkelsbühler) .

7 Well known examples are Thomas Eakins, "The Agnew Clinic," 1898 or
Gabriel Max, "Der Anatom", 1869; cf. Jordánová (105) and Bronfen (13-27).

8 Especially in feminist film theory there has been a wide-ranging discussion of

the differentiation of gaze and look - a distinction which is not sustained by the
German language which only knows one word for gaze/look ("blick"). My use of
both words follows more or less the differentiation suggested by Kaja Silverman in
her article on R.W. Fassbinder. Silverman refers to Foucault's account of the gaze
and thereby stresses the necessity to bear in mind, that "the field of vision may have
been variously articulated at different historical moments" (294).

9 In this context I want to refer to Gunther von Hägens exhibition 'Körper-

welten' ("worlds of the body"), an exhibition of plastinized preserved human speci-
mens, that was presented in several German venues since the mid-eighties. Hagen 's
(self-) stagings are obvious with their reference to the artist's/ physician's established
frames of authority. From Hagen 's clothing, which reminds one of Joseph Beuys up
to his claim of wanting to educate the public with his artefacts.

Works Cited

Bronfen, Elisabeth. Nur Über ihre Leiche: Tod , Weiblichkeit und Ästhetik.
Munich: Kunstmann, 1994.

Dünkelsbühler, Oudée U. Stich-Punkte Gezeichnet: Orlan/hors-langue. 14 Dec.

1999 <http://www.obn.org/LIFE/LIFEfiles/r_18_DU.html>.

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