DIY: 2012 – Michael Mayhew : The Body As Art

Michael Mayhew

The Body As Art

Manchester

DIY 9: 2012 – Call for Participants

A Five-Day Surgery on the practicalities and functionalities of working with the body.

Project summary:
Working with artist Michael Mayhew & Dr Tuheen Hudan ‘The Body as Art’ puts 6 artists & 2 theorists into the company of a Doctor and an experienced artist to talk / enquire / investigate the functionality and practicalities of working with the body within a performative context.

This surgery is aimed at artists who work with their body as canvas and vehicle for expression.
It is a surgery aimed at not only de-mystifying the functions of veins, muscles, and blood but to educate people in how to work with the body in a clean and safe manner.

It is a surgery that aims to engage with the artist’s practical ideas, and will tackle the materiality, conceptuality and contextuality of the body as material, and as site, the apparatus and any given fluids, marks and residue of any given engagement with body based art.

Our rational and proposed methodologies are to uncover the factual applications and functions of the body with artists who are or desire to engage with their bodies, and to bring the arts practitioner and the medical practitioner together in order to openly discuss, debate the use of the body as art.

Dates, times and location:
This surgery will last for 5 days beginning on Monday 3rd September and ending on the Friday 7th September 2012, starting at 10am each day. The Body as art will be held and run at art in Manchester. Exact venue and times tbc.

Application procedure:

It is free to participate but all participants are responsible for the arrangement of travel & accommodation. Michael can assist with locating accommodation in Manchester.

Artists wishing to engage with this surgery should contact Michael Mayhew with an outline of their practice, and a brief statement of why this opportunity would be useful to them. All artists should bring an idea of practice and enquiry. Expressions of interest should be emailed [email protected] (cc’ing [email protected]).

Closing date for applications is Monday 9 July, 2012.

The artist:
Michael Mayhew’s work crosses all borders of form and takes on challenging, provocative, moving and transformational topics. He works within a process of immersion into living processes and praxis, often working in untested and remote locations around the world. Arriving back from these expeditions, work is produced as a direct reflection of what was experienced, engaging with forms of expression that often challenges the traditional audience-performer relationship.

Contact information:
Please email in the first instance: [email protected]

This project was a response to the DIY 9 Call for Proposals