http://www.cepagallery.org/exhibitions/workspace/schneemann.html
^link to a gallery showing the 36 images
Active across several decades, Carolee Schneemann is a multidisciplinary artist interested in the interactions between body, gender, and sexuality. A piece that caught my eye in particular is her piece Eyey Body: 36 Transformative Actions, created in 1963. In this piece, Carol uses her body not only as a mode to construct the scenes, but also as part of the scenery. Her naked body is a canvas for a variety of markings and even a snake, emphasizing her body as "an integral material" (1) of the work. As Irvin Sandler noted, her work aims "to free human sexuality" (2). And this work most definitely explores sexuality and its ability to be more than erotic. Carolee shows the viewer through this piece that the body is not simply sensuous or desirable. It is also a natural part of any landscape where humanity has been.
Documented on 35mm film, the images were shot by the Icelandic photographer Erro. Although there is not a video of this performance, it can viewed through the thirty-six successive shots taken by Erro as Carolee painted herself literally, and figuratively into the environment surrounding her. By exploring nudity as a means for expression, and capturing her interactions with the scenes she set up around herself, Carol has integrated her body with the set in a way both unsettling and erotic. Unsettling because it has not been done before in that way, and erotic because it is done in that way.
1. quote by Carolee Schneemann
2. article by Irvin Sandler for The Brooklyn Rail
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