She, Who Broke the Rules!!

This is the second task given last wednesday by our teacher in creative thinking class. Everyone in my class is suppose to find someone, an artist who is creative and can be said that he has "broke the rules" of drawing.





The artist i chose as my role model is Jana Sterbak, a little bit about herself, she was a Canadian artist born in 19 March 1955 in Prague, Czech Republic.

source: http://assets.artandculture.com/media-prod/public/uploads/images/76124/jana_sterbak_thumb_medium.jpg

FIG 2, source: <http://31.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l8uxi40cyS1qbpemeo1_500.png>

She's the first person to make the flesh dress, dress made of 50 pounds of raw meat.

Apart from that she is already renowned for her pieces "i want you to feel the way i do" in 1984-1985 , "Vanitas: Flesh Dress for an Albino Anorectic" (1987) (Fig 2), "Remote Control" (1989), and others.

Fig 3, Remote Control, source:http://www.fondation-langlois.org/media/activites/langill/sterbak/Remote-Control.jpg

Fig 4, I want You To Feel The Way I Do, source:http://av.celarg.org.ve/Recomendaciones/janasterbek.jpg

 I admired her piece of "Flesh Dress" since it is unique and really different. I feel that she is the perfect person who can be said as "The artist who broke the Rules". Her Flesh Dress is being displayed in National Gallery in Ottawa, Canada hanging beside the picture of a woman wearing it and in just 6 weeks after the meat rotten the display will be replaced by a fresh 50 pounds meat worth $260.

Vanitas is a symbolize 17th century Dutch still life containing symbols of death, with compositions of rotting meat, game, guttering candle and skull. It is said that the dress being worn by the woman represent the contrast between vanity and bodily decay, a reminder of mortality and aging process as defend by the museum curator.

I found it rather inspiring since the dress is bold in a way, and contrasting with the skin that divide the flesh of the dress with again the flesh in our body. Many consider it was not a work of art since they all see it as a part of meat presented during lunch and causes a controversy when it was displayed in the gallery. But many too see it as a legitimate work of art.