Body Art

http://www.frieze.com/issue/article/survival_kit/
this article talks about Chris Burden's work. Love the "flying steamroller".
The way that this article puts it, Burden's "body modification" is like the way pagan Celts would adorn themselved with full-body tatoos, which must have been excrutiating. These tatoos were considered magic, and sometimes they would fight naked with only the tatoos for protection. Burden empowers himself by doing what he wishes with his body.

Mendieta was like the artists in the video we watched because she adorned herself to get in touch with nature and the divine.