Student in the Teachers' Lounge

There have been some fantastic things going on in a class I'm taking called Experimental Performance. Obviously, NYU offers some world-renowned professors and those professors often know a lot of famous people. Tonight in class, my professor introduced us to an incredible experimental performer named Orlan.

Orlan is a French woman who has been working in experimental performance for many years. Instead of script or a canvas, she uses here own body as the text and subject of her work. Her most famous works are a series of surgeries that were performed on her. Using only local anesthetics, Orlan was able to do live broadcasts from the operating table and answer questions from people around the world.

There is a long history of people using their bodies as their canvas. Artists like Franko B come to mind, who performed a ritual type of bloodletting about his own diagnosis of HIV+. But Orlan says she is not masochistic like many others - she does not feel pain while the art is happening, only joy, as she reads from her manifesto.

If this sounds interesting or bizarre to you, I encourage you to look at Orlan's website where there is much more information. And by all means, avail yourselves to what New York has to offer. Don't got see only Broadway shows; take a chance on some type of experimental work. It almost always fosters good conversation