Really Gross Art

While looking for a reference to this obscure superhero (while commenting on Tagline about what roles Halle Berry should take on next), I stumbled upon this crazy photo. It’s a woman sitting on a big pile of fresh animal bones. The woman is Marina Abramaovic, and, predictably, she’s an artist:

Abramovic’s installation “Balkan Baroque” which she calls a play, is made up of a triptych of video screens reminiscent of church icons. Two screens hold images of her parents while a central video image shows the artist dressed as a scientist explaining the story of the creation of the “Wolf Rats” in the Balkans, creatures who when placed in unbearable conditions destroy each other. Alternately, the screen switches to Abramovic in the outrageous character of a typical Balkan tavern singer who amuses her audience with dancing and folk melodies from Serbian and Romania. The large room containing the installation holds three copper vessels filled with water that suggests spiritual cleansing, and an enormous pile of animal bones. For several hours each day, the artist sits singing amidst this pile while she scrubs the bones with disinfectant, clearing away the scraps of meat attached.

I know this is from 1997, but isn’t rotting meat over? It seems to me that the last 20 years have been filled with shock art involving something decomposing.