Bio

ORLAN born Mireille Suzanne Francette Porte is a French artist, born on May 30, 1947 in Loire. She adopted Her artist name ORLAN in 1971, which she always writes in capital letters.ORLAN lives and works in Los Angeles, New York, and Paris. ORLAN is best known for her work with plastic surgery in the early to mid-1990s but is not limited to that medium.

Work

In 1964 her work was called "Slow motion walks" where she walks slowly around two objects the city. 1965, "MesuRages," which she would use her own body as a measuring instrument, she called the "ORLAN-body." on the sheets from her Trousseau where woman are given homes when they get married. 1964 to 1966, ORLAN made a series of photographic works called "Vintages." She destroyed the original negatives, and only one copy of each photograph remains. In this series, she posed naked in various yoga-like positions. 1967 to 1975, she undertook a new series, the "Tableaux Vivants." and many other numerous works but the ones that made her the most known where her plastic surgery in the early to mid-1990s.

My thoughts

The works that are most intriguing in my mind and in keeping with the teame of putting yourself into your art was her plastic surgery in the early to mid-1990s. This to me is one of the altamate forms of this you are giving up and altering your flesh for the sake of art. One can never look the same after surgery.