Bodypainting

The body painting or body-painting is one of the first forms of plastic expression used by our ancestors. At the dawn of humanity, our ancestors discover the coloured ground, the Charcoal, the Craie, the juice of coloured bays, the Sang of the animals and many other colors which are perhaps used to impress the enemy, in the form of painting of war, or sign recognition inside a tribe. This technique of primitive Maquillage also could be used as camouflage for hunting.

Probably even before the first stone is not engraved, the man thus applies pigments to his body to affirm his identity, the membership of his group and to be located compared to his entourage. This pictorial practice becomes an instrument of transformation. The drawings and the colors make it possible to change identity, to mark the entry in a new state or social group, to define a ritual position or to reaffirm the membership at a determined community, or are used quite simply as ornament.

The body painting, re-appeared in Occident at the time contemporary, became object of creation there. Transitory art, the painter creates a pictorial work on its model. Several festivals are devoted to him, of which that of Seeboden in Austria World bodypainting festival and that of Brussels in Belgium at the time of the International festival of science fiction film, The International Body Painting Contest .

Body painting and traditional companies

Almost all the tribal companies practiced the body painting using clay or of coal. Generally used during the ceremonies, it is still practiced in certain areas of the sphere like the Australia, the islands of the Pacific Ocean, certain parts of the Africa such as the hills of the Nuba Sudan board: in certain tribes of south-east, the colors of paintings and the hairstyles indicate the age of the men. The young men of the villages of Kau, Nyaro and Fungor raised the art of body and facial decoration to an high level of execution. These paintings are however carried out only by artists, but by all the men from seventeen to thirty years. Body painting becomes a kind of uniform for each age group. India until the the Maghreb, the women practice a more durable form of body painting using Henné, often at the time of religious holidays or marriages. The decorations with henné produce tons of orange with the black. The people autochtones of South America use the huito or genipapo (Genipa americana), the Annatto or coal for their body decorations. The huito, following the example is henné, the rather durable one and its black color spends a few weeks to be erased.

Colors: use and symbolic systems

The matters used to manufacture a color are of vegetable, mineral and animal origin. The pigments are very varied: coals, ashes, juices and seeds of fruits, etc The most important colors universally are the Rouge (or brown), the Noir, the Blanc, and the Ocre.

The colors most used by the Amerindians are:

the very sharp red extracts from Urucù (Roucou ( Bixa orellana ) or rocouyer).
the greenish black which comes from the juice of jenipapo (fruit of the tree Genipa americana).
the clay white.

In South America, the colors mainly used are the red, the black and the white.

the red and the orange are obtained by mixing seed powder of rocouyer (Bixa orellana) with palm oil or water.
the black is obtained starting from the pulp of the fruit genipapo (Genipa americana) or of the charcoal.
the white, of rarer use, is a mineral color, white clay.

The mineral colors (red, yellow, black and white) mixed with oil of tortoise, are employed like symbol of protection by Onges, Pygmies of the Andaman islands.

In all Africa, the roots of the padouk (large tree of the family of Papilionacées originating in Gabon whose thick secret bark a red resin sinks) are collected to manufacture a powder bright red, frequently used like body painting at the time of the traditional ceremonies. In the same way, the kaolin, white clay with the coarse grain, are frequently used at the time of the rites. The white, drawn from the clay dust, is generally associated with mourning or the purification. The red blood stone, drawn from the fertile ground, color of blood, is often symbol of vital energy and fruitfulness. Lastly, the black, evocative of the night and paramount chaos, symbolizes nothing.

Body painting and representation of oneself

The final character of scarifications and tattooings conditions their use, which is distinguished radically from that of body painting. This one postulates less one idea fixed in a glorious past that the premises of an identity to be conquered. The fugacious character of painting allows its renewal as much once than it is wished, with as many existing reasons and rich signs of direction to be created.

If the contemporary fashion weakens considerably the significances of body painting and the désacralise to reduce it to a manner like another of embellishing the body, it would be a shame to limit its current practice to these only functions. Let us retain for example that which makes of it the expression of a deep revolt, the symbol of resistance and independence. One can remember indeed the musician Nigerian Fela Anikulapo Kuti (1938-1997) who, through its tribal music and its paintings, disputed the moral authorities and policies of its country. The artistic step of Cracked makes it possible to include/understand the bringing together with the art of body painting and the speech of the fights against all kinds of oppressions of the artist.

The painting of the body was undoubtedly the first decorative gesture of humanity. “It was necessary to be painted to be man” notes C. Lévi-Strauss. It was especially to dissociate other living beings. Body painting affirms the identity with its traditional colors symbolic systems and its reasons. The body “identity” becomes a body - speech.

In the various Amerindian and African cultures, the body signs, left alphabet of the body, must be read like meaning or of the messages. Body paintings can be connected with a geographical map which identifies each individual in their sociocultural universe: show me as you paint and I would say to you from where you come and who you are. Body painting is a will of communication which passes by a creative and artistic step. It is to some extent the esthetisation of the life in its least gestures.

Modern practice of the body-painting

The body painting of today, such as it is again practiced in the Western companies, has an especially ludic and decorative goal. Its spectacular character makes an event-driven activity of it very appraisal. Moreover, the side “neither naked, nor equipped” with the painted model allows an exposure of the body without that shocking decency prevailing in the aforementioned companies: one very frequently sees models “equipped” with clothing in trompe-l'oeil. This aspect thus makes it possible people almost entirely naked to circulate in public places by causing generally only amused smiles. The animalist topic is also frequently treated: the models are thus transformed into cat-like in the majority of the cases, but also into dogs, zebras, or cows… When other animals appear, they are generally integrated in a decoration painted on the skin of the model: snakes in the jungle, spider on its fabric… Another favorite topic of the artists is the fantastic one: multicoloured creatures, scaled, equipped with wings, antennas, claws traverse the festivals dedicated to the kind. The camouflage is also met: the body is integrated into its environment, trees, wallpaper or decrepit walls. See on this subject the work of the actress and model Veruschka on its own body. One will note finally the growing popularity of “transitory tattooings”, whether open artists carry out using henné or of inks not always inoffensive. Moreover small size, they apply in places chosen, biceps, ankle, kidneys, for example, and take again the popular reasons for truths tattooings, while being less painful, cheaper, and of course, nonfinal!

Precautions to be taken

Some elementary rules are to be taken into account:

To use an especially formulated painting. Paintings for the fine arts, the building and others are to be proscribed, under penalty of allergies, even of intoxication. In the same way, certain inks for “temporary tattooing” and even henné can involve undesirable effects.
To operate on a clean and perfectly healthy skin. To avoid the zones injured by the recent irritations and scars.
To clean brush and sponges after use, with an aim of avoiding the propagation of possible diseases…
remembering that nudity can shock some.

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