Watch ArtShock online: Episode 2 The Human Canvas

We have come to expect art to penetrate the surface of things.... ... to make us think in new ways... ... to cut across boundaries of what is acceptable. In a culture obsessed with bodily health and beauty, it is particularly shocking to see people cut themselves in the name of art. There are things going on in both mainstream gallery art and in an underground subculture that challenge every taboo we have over what we should do with our bodies. The Human Canvas explores the performance art and body art subculture at the edge of the modern art scene, where breaking the skin, bleeding, cutting and scarring are common practice. And all staged in front of a paying live audience. This provocative, challenging and shocking art form provokes powerful gut reactions in most people that see it. After all, why would you willingly let someone cut a design into the skin on your chest? Or have cosmetic surgery in front of a live audience? The scene is so controversial that it is attracting concern from government agencies and health officials across the world, some of whom want the art form banned to protect both the health of the individual artist and the public at large. But whatever your view, the key question for many people is: what is to be gained from willingly enduring pain, losing blood or going into shock for the sake of art? What is clear is that if you can get beyond the shock value then performance and body art raises important questions about what our bodies mean to us.

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