Body Extensions and Rebecca Horn

The above video shows artist Rebecca Horn, walking up and down a room, with man- made fingers. At first, I thought this was quite strange and didn't really understand what the purpose of this video was. I was more interested that the shadow she was creating made her have a tree like shape. She is in fact, interacting with the space around her. Having contact with her surroundings through extending her body. 'Finger Gloves' is a performance piece, Her extended finger are worn like gloves, but the finger form extends with balsa wood and cloth. By being able to see what she was touching and the way in which she was touching it, it felt as if her fingers were extended and in her mind the illusion was created that she was actually touching what the extensions were touching.
Rebecca Horn, a German artist is in fact famous for her body modification art.

Her notable works include:

'Pencil Mask' is another body extension piece, made up of six straps running horizontally and three straps running vertically. Where the straps intersect a pencil has been attached. When moving her face back and forth on a nearby wall the pencil marks that are made correspond directly with her movements. Showing her interaction between her body, the pencil and the space in which she is creating these marks.

Another piece that involves the sense of feeling and one’s hand is 'Feather Fingers.' (1972). A feather is attached to each finger with a metal ring. Horn wanted to create a feeling as symmetrical (and as sensitive) as a bird’s wing”.

These Body extensions are a form of body modification. throughout society it is now a common thing for this to be happening. Such as, Plastic surgery, Prosthetics, Earrings etc. I feel it is in our human nature to want to change something about yourself , seeing as nowadays changing your body and how you look is so readily available. I believe extensions, especially in health speaking terms, can help improve someones way of living, that being a prosthetic leg to a hearing aid.

Extensions to the body, especially mechanical can be very beneficial to a person. After looking at cyborg, an organism that has both artificial and natural systems. It houses the question of differencing between the relationship of human and machine, Maybe a kind of super human? invincible.



The above video is that of Bjork, created by Chris Cunningham. I found this video particularly haunting. The fact that it shows the relationship between man and machine.
More recently, i've come across the new invention of the most realistic looking robot, take a look at the link from BBC news below.