M HKA Ensembles

ORLAN is now famous for being the first female artist measuring spaces using her own body literally and physically as a scale. It is perhaps mainly as a result of these works that she is regarded as a reference for feminist art. They assume their own position in the art of that time, which can then be linked to other artists back then who used the human position and body as a theme in their work.
What marks her out is that she was looking for a relationship with the environment – both symbolic and real – and that she did so in a long sequence of effects with actions that were both concrete and ritual. The public was present in the form of witnesses in a set-up that is best likened to a film set. In these actions she uses the act of measuring as an opportunity to articulate insights into a tension, into an unresolved relationship. A symbol of this ambiguity is the bottle that she holds up in the final picture, whereby she becomes a modern-day statue of liberty. The bottle contains dirt from the street as well as detergent. Rage is the second part of the MesuRAGES, but they are also full of humour, a duality that also characterises the later work of ORLAN.

Hide this description