Source: KimBlog – February 9, 2009; Article by Susan Carter Flynn
Missed
opportunity of the month: It’s not often
that squeamishness keeps me away from performance art, but I couldn’t bring
myself to attend Jason Fitzpatrick’s Bite and Burn, Encore, at MSVU Art
Gallery (I blame it on a near-fainting episode
when I was in high school, watching a boyfriend get tattooed). Fitzpatrick had a piece tattooed down the
centre of his back by a professional tattooist in front of an on-looking
crowd. This is the fourth time he’s done
the performance and the work is cleverly set up like a music “tour,” where
videos of previous shows play in the gallery.
A local noise-metal band performed as well.
Fitzpatrick’s
work is a not to 1970s body modification performances and viewer spectacle
(prior to his Halifax
performance, he researched the 1970 NSCAD Lithography Workshop, including “body
art prints made by Joyce Wieland and Vito Acconci”) and I was bit surprised by
the level of shock and disbelief from people I spoke to about this
performance. Considering almost every
Dalhousie undergrad has a butterfly on their ankle and the local tattoo
festivals are extremely poplar events, perhaps getting ink in an art gallery,
or as theatre, is the remaining taboo.