Article: Is it art? Orlan and the transgressive act. (French performance artist Orlan)

The French performance artist whose assumed name is Orlan has embarked on a campaign of self-transformation through plastic surgery. The photo-documentation of her operation/performances furnishes both the imagery and the financial support for her art. Below, the author grapples with the many issues raised by a body of work that gives new meaning to the term "cutting edge."

Orlan is not her name. Her face is not her face. Soon her body will no be her body. Paradox is her content; subversion is her technique. Her features and limbs are endlessly photographed and reproduced; in France, she appears in mass-media magazines and on television talk shows. Each time she ...

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