*TRIGGER WARNING*

I just found this artist who is deeply engaged in issues of injustice (especially LGBT issues) while addressing self-harm. She says, "I challenge myself and others to critically consider our reactions and interactions with social issues of injustice. I often use my body to explore and push the boundaries of codes, routes and rules and to problematize the limitations of social norms, expectations and progress."

www.marycoble.com to see all her work, but this work really hit me:

"Note to Self is a performance that deals with gay, lesbian, bi and transgender people who have died due to hate crimes committed against them. Coble compiled a list of 436 names of these individuals, through research on various websites, news reports and official and unofficial documentation. The list started and ended with the word “anonymous” to acknowledge the many lives that were taken that my list didn’t include.

During a solid twelve-hour timeframe these names were tattooed, with no ink, onto the surface of Coble’s body. She had these names inklessly tattooed on her body as a reference to the brutality of these murders; many of the victims had slurs such as dyke or faggot carved into their bodies.

After each name was completed, a Blood Painting was made by pressing a sheet of paper directly against the fresh abrasion. These prints were then places on the walls of the gallery. As the list of name compiled on her body the same list was mirrored on the gallery walls.

The first three hours of this performance was open to the public while the last nine hours were webcast so the audience could watch via the net."

http://marycoble.com/performance-installation/note-to-self-2005

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(Also: reminds me of this work by Catherine Opie's work:)

“1993’s “Self-Portrait/Cutting,”…plays with the history of painted portraiture while turning its back on it. Seated before a decorative green background like a royal icon by Holbein, she has a bleeding, childlike, stick-figure drawing of lesbian domestic bliss cut into the flesh of her back. (Artist Judie Bamber wielded the blade.) Art’s exalted tradition of the female nude floats into view.

Opie simultaneously accepts and rejects it. And she remakes it into a powerful document of humanist experience.”

http://queercontemporaryart.tumblr.com/post/27908806855/catherine-opie-self-portrait-cutting-1993-today



THESE WOMEN ARE MAKING TRULY CHALLENGING WORK... questioning our reactions to these social taboos of self-harm and the reality of LGBT issues. 

They are addressing extremely hard issues that nobody wants to talk about. That takes serious courage. 

Powerful. Traumatic. Relevant.