Dear Shaded Viewers,
“ORLAN is unwilling to be confined by the limits of pain, suffering, or even nature, and will obstinately work against them. If identity is constructed on the surface of a woman’s body, on the skin, ORLAN will peel it back to show us what lies beneath, or dramatically alter it so as to participate in the creation of her own identity.
In conversation, ORLAN uses the words “resculpt” and “reinvention” almost synonymously, which indicates her tendency to conflate identity with image. While we should be wary of internalizing society’s way of reducing identity to the visual, ORLAN’s work does feel strangely prescient.”
Click the link below for the full article:
https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-70-body-modification-artist-orlan-reinventing
