Noel Ferry

Body Art

The art of body painting has been around for quite some time now, and in fact, every society does it. I look at the recent spate of tattooing that graces many sports mens arms recently, and all you see is a tattoo that is more permanent.They will not be all that happy when they get a little older and realise it is stuck there forever. With body art, you can easily edit and even erase. It is simply a matter of washing it off in the shower and that is that.

What I love about the more ephemeral practise of body painting is that it is over and done with, with the next wash, and yes, like a blackboard, which I use quite often, it is over and done with when erased. Remember though, this imagery is also immortalised in film rendering it a life way after the paint is gone if you so desire. I am thinking now of recording material in what they call ‘The Japanese book’ which will allow it to have a life all of its own. After all, the art work does have a life, and it does live on after it has been created.

I am interested now in working with models to help create a life out of these forms. Paper has been good as a sketchpad of ideas, but with the living body, one has the ability to work on a more intimate setting, where the actual living system adds to the visual matrix, offering an interaction that a frozen art form cannot. I would want to create what is called a ‘Japanese Folio’ of ideas, where a book is created that talks about the forms and the relationships therein.

And the visual narratives that I want to create will afford a form of communication that is heavily dependent on the interaction between images placed upon the body itself. I think that I am going to have some fun with these ideas.

I also have within me this idea of painting people in different bodies associated with the animal of that country. The Dog here in Central Australia or Kangaroo, and in England or France say, the hare. The tiger in India and maybe the hare also in Japan. It has been an idea for quite some time now and I might actually give it some traction next year when I start to realise some of these ideas that have floated round in my head for some time now.