The subject of a documentary film, Australian performance artist Stelarc is considered an icon for, among other works, his nude suspensions.
By Ara Jansen
As a young man, Richard Moore witnessed something which has stayed with him for decades. Now he’s made a documentary about the artist he saw.
Between 1976 and 1989 a performance artist named Stelarc staged two dozen suspension events where his nude body was pierced with hooks and hung from various locations.
His Prepared Tree Suspension, where Stelarc was hung from a tree in October 1982 in Canberra, was what Richard had seen.
“At some point,” says Richard, “he asked everyone to leave. And when they brought him down and removed the hooks, they wrapped him in a shroud and took him away.
“He chose this beautiful gumtree, and it conjured up images of a hanging, a public crucifixion and ritual sacrifice.”
The film maker said it reminded him of the 1970 Western movie A Man Called Horse when they hung actor Richard Harris by the nipples.
“Sometimes you see something or someone in your life that just shakes you to your core. It was that image of someone suspended from a tree and the whole ritual of it.”
Richard, a festival artistic director, a curator, executive producer and documentary film maker, will be screening his Stelarc Suspending Disbelief doco at July’s Revelation International Perth Film Festival.
“When we were doing research for the film we came across other footage around the world of suspensions in several different cultures, like in Sri Lanka. But Stelarc has definitely become a bit of a grandfather of great suspensions.”
Stelarc is a Cyprus-born Australian from Melbourne. The 78-year-old performance artist has visually probed and amplified his body as art for decades. Notable events include a moving suspension high above New York in 1984 and attaching a real ear to his arm in 2015, with the idea of people being able to hear what it hears.
In a 2016 work at PICA in Northbridge, Stelarc spent six hours a day across five days encased in a mechanised body where he could only see with the eyes of someone in London, hear with the ears from someone in New York but anyone, anywhere could remotely access his right arm.
He also spent some time at Curtin as a visiting professor around a decade ago.
Over the years, Stelarc’s work has morphed from performance pieces like suspensions to exploring the intersection between a human, technology and robotics. His work often expressing his mantra “the body is obsolete”.
Stelarc Suspending Disbelief is Richard’s salute to this extraordinary Australian artist. Be warned though, there’s plenty of full-frontal nudity and some moments which might make you look away.
The documentary – which has been six years in the making – pulls together archive footage from across Stelarc’s career, interspersed with cuts from a new interview filmed in his car as Stelarc drives around Melbourne.
An artist of international standing, Stelarc continues to work around the world and the documentary runs right up to the opening of a recent exhibition.
“Filming him in his car was a way to get him relaxed. He’s cracking jokes and has an interesting laugh. It’s very endearing. There’s lots of loopy people in the world, but everything with Stelarc comes from science, is extremely well researched and they are not flights of fancy.
“His work has a serious intent. He explores what it is to be human and he uses his body as his medium.
“The good thing about him is that he keeps on exploring and keeps pushing boundaries. He’ll still be doing things into his 80s. There’s definitely a toughness to him, and you need that level of toughness, especially when you are trying to raise money to make this kind of art.
“Apart from telling a story on screen, we also wanted to challenge, tease and surprise people. Also, the change in attitudes in recent times towards aspects of body art such as piercings and tattoos might also draw an audience to this film.”
Stelarc Suspending Disbelief is part of the Revelation International Perth Film Festival from July 2 – 13. Click here for session info.
We have five double passes to give away for the Revelation International Perth Film Festival. To enter visit our competitions page here.
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