essay

Lucas Samaras stared off as a sculptor, painter and performance artist before moving onto photography and creating a whole range of work throughout his life with himself as subject.



Samaras was born in Kastoria Macedonia, Greece on the 14th September 1936 and in 1948 emigrated to the US. From 1955-59 he attended Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey where he met fellow artists Allan Kaprow and George Seal. After a solo exhibition at the Reuben Gallery, Samaras got involved with artists assosiated with the gallery and started to get into performance art alongside Claes Oldenberg, Jim Dine and Red Grooms.



During the late 1950's there was a major turning point in Samaras's work, going down the route of self observation with him becoming the subject and the artist. The "Happenings" were 18 performances in 6 parts over 6 days from the 4th of October to the 10th 1959. The acts were highlighting parts of Dada and surrealism for example "Sophia = Wisdom" part one, there is no storyline but just the running ideas and thoughts coming together. In this particular scene they are experimenting with the idea of people as props being more interesting that just your normal objects. All 18 "Happenings" were experimental theatre involving installations, light, sound, slide projectors and the audience would be encouraged to get involved.



Samaras then started to install rooms that were full of his personal history with the mood of his performaces in the "Happenings" his main influence. He spent a lot of time in his New York apartment-studio working alone and it reflected in his work. He created "Auto-interviews" which is a series of studies usuing texts to explore himself. Instead of expressing this through paiting or sculpture he started to recognise other forms or art, such as an author would work through the mediam of text, and a singer would through their voice and sound.



From the mid 60's to 80's Samaras also created a range of boxes. These boxes were made to look attractive from the outside but on the inside its a dangerous space to be for example 'Box No.85' (1973) had colourful pins stuck through creating an embellished, colourful look from first veiw then the harmfull sharp pins on the inside. All of his boxes are personal to him. This particular one would have been inspired by the time he spent with his dress-making aunt. The box is a reflection of the time he spent with her and a metaphore for loss or something missing.



Nikk S. Lee is an artist who tests the boundaries of her identity in "The Ohio Project" (1999) by spending time living and acting like different american subcultures such as lesbians, senior citizens, tourists, punks, drag queens and the homeless for up to months at a time. This is changing her cultural values and behaviour patterns by adapting to social, economic and ethnic differences. Her image and personality must also alter to fit in.



Nikk S. Lee is origionally from Korea and attended Chung-Ang University in 1993. In 1994 she attended the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City and now lives there working as an artist and filmmaker. In 1998 she gained an M.A in photography. Moving from Korea to New York is a complete culture change and would have definatly had an impact on her curiosity and inspiration of other cultures. Also from doing this fashion she could experiment with fashion while being with the different groups and would almost be like playing dress up for her. She can explore the distinctive trends and expand her knowledge. To capture her time with the groups se will confess her project to the people shes with and documents it with a photograph at the end of her experiance. Nikk S. Lee's work reflects hew life, education and asperations even though she is constantly changing her social identity.

Patricia Piccinini is an artist who creates flesh-like sculptures of her own made up creatures. They have some human characteristics, some animal and explores life forms and the identity of the human race.



Her works stir our emotions and our emotions are a big part of who we are and how we react to situations. "Foundling" (2008) is a human like creature in a baby carrier. The eyes are much bigger than that of a human baby and its legs seem to br scrunched into the seat under its wool blanket. From just looking at the creature a mothering instinct kicks in and feel like you need to help him.



"Not Quite Animal" ('Transgenic Skull for The Young Family') (2008) is an anatomically accurate cranival form of a human and animal one. Before studying Fine Art Piccinini gained a Bachelor of Economics at Austrailian National University after immigrating there from Sierra Leone in 1972. This gave her the inspiration for her following art work and focuses on biogenetics, cloning, artifice, nature, consumer culture