Artist of the week: Nicola Canavan

Ok, I have three weeks of presentations in a row and am in the middle of doing some serious theoretical reading so there's no gallery visits this week! Instead, here's some images of an artist I came across in my research who I am currently crushing on a bit. Nicola Canavan is a young British performance/live artist who uses and modifies her own body in her performances. I'm not always into really in-your-face body performance art, but while Canavan's work is graphic, what with the nudity and the serious body modification, the actual live performances, as I read them, are less about confrontation and more about contemplation for the audience. Or, I might just like her because she is smoking hot. I'm not sure.

 Bitter Sweet, Nicola Canavan

This image is hauntingly beautiful. It's the first of her works that I came across and what sent me looking for more.

Untangling, Nicola Canavan.

From the description: "In the performance space, the artist lies on her back, naked, covered almost entirely with soil. Piercings are used to connect her to the space. Over the two hours of the performance, the light gradually changes, becoming darker. Untangling is an exploration of death, loneliness and desire, an insight into the absent body and mind routine of sleeping alone. This is a contemplative piece in which the inherent contradiction between the physical demands Canavan places upon her body are matched by stillness and the slow passage of time."