Unter der Haut--Under the Skin.

Biological Transformations in Contemporary Art

Edited by Renate Heidt Heller

(Ostfildern-Ruit, Germany: Hatje Cantz, 2001)

A bilingual (English and German) catalog, Under the Skin accompanies the recent exhibition at the Lehmbruck Museum in Duisburg, Germany. The exhibition sought to convey a human image of self in relationship to rapidly morphing bio-technical ideals through the eyes of 17 media artists.

Three essays lay the foundation for this year's twenty-fifth anniversary exhibition and accompanying catalog. As Christoph Brockhaus explains in his brief introduction, Nightmare or Blessing;" photography, video art, video sculpture and installation are the natural choices of media for these contemporary themes. The inevitable issue of human cloning is addressed in Werner Bartens's essay "Those who want to clone must start small." He states that while the prospect of human cloning is still a very controversial issue, the idea of therapeutic cloning--harvesting organs solely for medical use, such as transplants and tissue replacement--blurs traditional boundaries, thus raising entirely new debates. The final essay, Soke Dinkla's "Biological Transformations in Contemporary Art," deals with the artist's role in finding, representing and holding onto the organic element of humanity in the midst of an increasingly bio-engineered society. The distinction between man and machine is drawn at the skin, but when dealin g with modern art the fragmentation of the body is no longer the theme, it is a prerequisite," Dinkla writes.

The catalog is divided into three thematic categories where each artist has a couple of spreads showcasing the work, as well as a few informative paragraphs to help analyze, explain and inform the reader of a context for the images. "The Body as a Fragment" segment includes Cindy Sherman, Jake and Dinos Chapman, Thomas Grunfeld, Lim Young Sun, Heather Sheehan and Eduardo Kac. For these artists, the body as a whole is never pondered. The use of its parts, both poetically and horrifically, formulates their stance on art, science and themselves. The second theme, "The View Inwards," features artists Ken Feingold, Oleg Kulik, Tony Oursler, Thomas Florschuetz, Gary Schneider, Kevin Clarke, Andreas Horlitz and Birgitta Weimer. This group of artists focuses on mechanisms of vision through various uses of an actual organic eye and its technical substitutes. Their use of projection, reflection, abstraction and superimposition evokes fascinating insights into a shifting human nature, focusing on a being of intellect an d imagination in a vessel shaped by both biology and technology.

The third strain, "Playing with Life," incorporates the multimedia installation work of Via Lewandowsky and Harold Fuchs. These artists' work hovers around the themes of life and death, combining the "everything-is-feasible" belief instilled in us by scientists and preachers with quotes from various religions and cults. They find that both religious and scientific ideals have a regulating function on our bodies and minds, and that man is sacrificing himself to uphold these intangible but instrumental ideologies. By blatantly exposing the construction of their work, Lewandowsky and Fuchs attempt to remove the viewer from exploitation under the repeated threat and promise of the unknown. Under the Skin concludes with individual biographies to get under the skin of each artist.

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Heart to Heart: New Poems Inspired by 20th Century American Art, by Jan Greenberg. Harry N. Abrams/80 pp./$19.95 (hb).

How to Shoot Stock Photos that Sell (Third Edition), by Michal Heron. Allworth Press/224 pp./$19.95 (sb).

In Her Place: Photographs by Peggy Fleming. Three Sisters Press (3817 Jocelyn St., NW, Washington, D.C. 20015)/128 pp./$29.95 (sb).

Karl Blossfield: Working Collages, edited by Ann and Jurgen Wilde. The MIT Press/non-paginated/ price unavailable (hb).