Name: Body-fluid art.
Age: In theory, as old as the human body, but generally considered to be a modern phenomenon.
Appearance: Museum-quality excreta.
I’m confused. Can you give me some examples? There are many. Merda D’Artista, by Piero Manzoni, was a 1961 work consisting of the artist’s canned excrement, although the actual contents of the 90 tins is unknown; they are believed by some to be full of plaster.
Not a very good example, then. Fine. There’s Andres Serrano’s Piss Christ (1987), a photograph of a crucifix in a tank of urine. And Andy Warhol’s piss paintings (1977/78). And Marc Quinn’s Self (1991) a cast of the artist’s head made of his own frozen blood.
That’s not the sort of thing you would want to have in the sitting room during a power cut. There is also a tradition of artists “commenting on” Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain (a signed urinal) by trying to wee in it.
All very gross – and all very yesterday. What have the excreting artists done lately? More recently, a Royal College of Art graduate, Alice Potts, found a way to transform body fluids into crystals, which she uses to accessorise fashion items, including a pair of ballet slippers (adorned with gems made from human sweat) and a rug-like piece of material (topped with urine crystals).
How does she do that? No one knows, apart from the scientists at Imperial College London who collaborated with her to develop the process.
Why does she do that? Potts believes that her biocrystals are more sustainable than the plastic materials used in fashion. “One day, we will be able to grow our own accessories on our skin,” she says.
It sounds like a lot of work. Apart from anything else, you would have to sweat a lot. True. To that end, Potts’s show at the Onassis Cultural Centre in Athens – which opens on 13 November – will include gym space and a dancefloor where visitors can run, rave and, most importantly, perspire.
Good idea. Let other people pay to do all the sweating. They don’t have to – admission is free.
And the Onassis Centre – they are OK with Potts doing this? Absolutely. “We want to help her release her potential [as she works] on the nature and technology of the Athenian sweat,” said Afroditi Panagiotakou, the director of culture at the Onassis Foundation.
These crystals made from sweat – do they smell like old trainers? If they do, everyone has been too polite to say anything so far.
Do say: “I’m running the marathon. How many earrings will that make?”
Don’t say: “I’m running out of body fluids.”
