Whose Skin? Curating Tattooed Tableaux Vivants in Contemporary Art
image: Wim Delvoye: Tim (2006), Tim Steiner sitting for Tim at the Museum for Old and New Art, Hobart, Tasmania. Photo: Courtesy Studio Wim Delvoye
This article discusses tattoo works by contemporary artists Wim Delvoye and Santiago to raise questions about curating tattooed tableaux vivants. Showing tattoos on living persons in an exhibition context instigates an interesting curatorial network. The relationship extends from the curator and the artist to the person carrying the artwork. Yet one cannot assume that the three parties act in agreement. Their connection may be social, art-focused, or even market driven. In a newly formed triangle of artistic and curatorial interests, the division of labour and distribution of profits have to be renegotiated.