Malignant Mother

Here's a performance by Yiorgos Zafiorou that I participated in at ArtSpace sometime ago. See if you can find me in the image...

Yiorgos Zafiriou Malignant Mother

In 2004 surgical nipple grafts made the artist's nipples redundant pieces of flesh. They simply became decorations marked upon his chest by surgery. Malignant Mother celebrates the transition of Zafiriou's nipples from sites of pleasure to coloured skin patches that stare out from his torso.

Like the surgery, the performance is prepared as a ritualised process. A bell rings. A tattooist prepares her machinery. A figure in a lab coat suture a chain made from human fingernails to his navel.

In the course of the performance the artist's nipples are made black. Black is used to represent a symbolic death. Black makes visible what is invisible.

Acknowlegements:
Megan Oliver (Tattoist), Fiona McGregor of SenVoodoo (Suturing), Zoo (Non-maternally manipulated lactivational performer), Peter Conlon (Performance Assistant), Daniel Cater (Costumes)