Summer exhibitions to examine migration, society and the environment
posted 19 Jun 2019
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Milk & Blood
- Thu, 28 Jul 2016
- 7.00 PM - 8.00 PM
- Tickets: £10/7
Milk & Blood appropriates the aesthetics of boxing for thirteen two minute rounds of mental and physical endurance.
Exploring themes of pain, eroticism, revulsion, ecstasy and masculinity, Franko B’s performance becomes a metaphor for social struggle and the ability to overcome.
Born in Milan in 1960, Franko B moved to England in the late 1970s. The Italian artist’s work was originally based on the bloody violation of his own body, however he has since embraced a wide variety of media including video, photography, painting, installation, and sculpture.
The life and work of Franko is situated somewhere between isolation and seduction, benevolence and confrontation, suffering and eroticism, punk and poetry. Caught up in the non-conformist scene of S&M, tattoos, drugs and hard techno, Franko B found his iconoclastic core during his early performances.
A controversial performer in the vein of performance artists such as Marina Abramovic, Franko B caused a stir in 2003 when in the iconic I Miss You in the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern he walked the runway, illuminated by florescent tubes, blood flowing from his veins, dripping over his naked white body and onto the canvased floor. Isolated and exposed on stage, his blood was offered as a reflection of society’s vulnerability. ‘We are all bleeding inside’ Franko B avowed.
Franko B will also give an artist talk at Bluecoat on Wed 27 Jul about his career over the decades.