Human Canvas with Black Absinthe

Human Canvas: Wound, ritual and performance in extreme body art

Black Absinthe is an artist, dominatrix, sex worker and extreme performer from Italy. She starts

working as a model at a very young age and, over the time, explores photography as a medium of

storytelling and self discovery. In the meantime, she studies contemporary art, and thus becomes

close to the contemporary artistic and performative reality. Since 2022, she has been actively

involved in the Berlin art scene, coming into contact with its main exponents. However, it is from

2023, after her graduation, that she begins to stage her first performances, moving confidently

between extreme body art and post-porn, standing out for her versatility.

Human Canvas is the title of her uni thesis – a massive study of the extreme body art in the 90s

and its ties with history of art, ancient cultures and rite. Winding its way through a digression on

1970s performance art and the roots of extreme art, it focuses on Viennese Actionism as an

emblematic example of art that becomes collective ritual, analyzing the work of Hermann Nitsch,

the maximum exponent from whom she drew the greatest inspiration within her own artistic

production. Her study then focuses in particular on the work of Franko B and Ron Athey, leading

figures in the extreme scene of the 1990s and still internationally renowned artists today,

concluding with a final chapter on the European and international scene of today, which includes

independent artists, collectives and venues that carry forward a raw, underground art that

rediscovers its roots in a primordial and ritualistic art, which contemporary times today feel alien.

During this lesson, Black Absinthe will share with the audience the key points of her thesis, and

she will then introduce her own work as an artist and performer on the European and international

scene.

Topics include:

- a brief introduction about the origins of extreme body art in the 70s

- the work of Franko B and Ron Athey as main characters of the extreme scene in the 90s

- Vienna Actionism: Hermann Nitsch and Das Orgien Mysterien Theater. Art as a collective ritual

- the artist and her work: Black Absinthe talks about her production, which mixes action painting,

live sculpting, piercing and bloodletting ritual.

During the lesson, videos and photos of performances will be shown as well.

Join This Class

Tickets are available on a sliding scale basis and to members of the Vampire Academy tier and above on Patreon. This class is recorded. The recording will be made available to ticket holders within 48 hours following the class, and can be watched for 14 days thereafter. It will also be posted for a month on the Patreon at the Vampire Academy tier and above.

Patreon Memberships: https://www.patreon.com/c/reignofblood/membership