By Laura Day
(April 2007)
"Why should your ears be on the side of your head? Wouldn't it be more interesting if you could speak into your own ear, or hand your ear over to someone else to listen with?
This is the rationale behind British-based Australian Stelarc, and his most recent project, Extra Ear.
A canvas and cutting ground for scalpels, 'installing' a piece of permanent conceptual art under his left forearm is Stelarc’s idea of a good piece of work. If it shocks, contrives and creates anxiety - it’s a hit.
Stelarc, 57, is currently exhibiting his piece at FACT exhibition Sk-Interfaces. Freaky yes, and arguably one of the fewer installations with the “errr...?” factor. Grown from a prosthesis imbedded under his skin, the ear has developed its own blood supply and is effectively no longer separate from his arm. And if having an ear on the arm wasn’t enough, it will eventually contain a Bluetooth transmitter, so the ear will be internet enabled in wi-fi hotspots: "In other words, you'll be able to hear what my ear is listening to wherever I am."
But Stelarc's original intentions were even more bizarre, if you can believe it: "Initially it was modelled as an ear on the side of my face, and there are several reasons why it never happened. One was that anatomically it's not the safest location because it would be near were the facial nerves surface, and also it would be near the jawbone, so it wasn't a very smart place to position the ear. Also, surgeons would not assist me because there was a possibility of partial face paralysis."
Stelarc wound up as a conceptual artist at art school after he realised he was a bad painter. Feeling akin with visual arts, but unable to successfully put paintbrush to canvas in any artistic sense, he decided to compromise and become a body performance artist: "I guess I was always interested in how the body had evolved. I was always envious of dancers and gymnasts that use their body as a means of expression."
Dubbing his career of 30 years as "a failure", Stelarc has imagined and realised a series of conceptual projects, mostly all bordering on the inconceivable: "It's the realisation that everything you've done has never turned out the way you expected it. This is really an artistic career that has been a failure."
Just days following the installation of a larger exhibition at FACT, Sk-interfaces, he can only exhibit his extra ear by means of a conceptual statement on the wall of Gallery One, and a short film depicting his surgery.
"It's frustrating really. What I find interesting in this exhibition are the actual installations – the works of art that are physical, that are moving. I've only got documentation, but hopefully they will really question the idea of what it means to be a body, the future of it and how it functions."
Stomach sculptures, prosthetic heads and body suspension by 18 hooks are just three of Stelarc's back catalogue of experiences. Set on proving that the body is no longer one entity that regenerates itself throughout life, unguided until death, Stelarc disregards the body as "one individual agency" and embraces visionary possibilities that aren't really all that possible, yet.
The project was much to the dismay of friends, his previous partner left him because of his aspirations, and he's yet to show the ear to his mother. But Stelarc is certain he's made the right decision: "I'll never regret it, I don't think so. It's been a tough one to go through and persist with, but people thought there's a difference between having a third hand (a previous project) because you can take it off after the performance, but if you construct an ear on your arm, that's a permanent addition and it becomes part of your body - people are going to feel squeamish."
"It will all probably take a couple of years realistically. It's just something that I have to live with. This project has taken nine years so far, so I guess I can be a little bit more patient."
