Collection Postcard
VALIE EXPORT, Body Sign Action (2), 1970 (Print 2003)

VALIE EXPORT
Body Sign Action (2), 1970 (Print 2003)
Black and white photograph
100 x 140 cm

Body Sign Action (2) documents the garter VALIE EXPORT had tattooed onto her thigh. The garter, in red and black ink, is photographed on the artist's naked body. The act of tattooing and then producing the photograph as an artwork turns the artist’s own body into the primary material, changing the typical relationship between artist, artwork and spectator.

In 2019 artist Jimmy Robert chose to borrow this work for Evening of Performances at Ministry of Sound, forming the set of his performance, it was installed as if part of an art fair booth. In this work he explored how we position ourselves in relation to works of art, and how the environment of a club could be used to disrupt the politics of spectatorship, objectification and representation within the canon.

Body Sign Action (2) was a fitting choice. The tattoo transforms the garter from an item of clothing into a two-dimensional image or sign, which in turn alters how we view what her body signals in the photograph. VALIE EXPORT has asserted that the garter is often used as a symbol of repressed sexuality. By permanently inscribing it onto her skin she can reclaim or disrupt these associations. Turning herself into the viewed ‘object’ in acts of self-determination like this one, the form purposefully provocative artworks and performances, has been a core part of her feminist practice for the last sixty years.