Body painting
Body painting ( English body painting [ bɒdiˌpeɪntɪŋ ]) is a form of body design . Color is applied directly to the skin . The body painting lasts from a few hours to several weeks (with henna tattoos), but unlike the tattoo, it is not permanent.
History of body painting
Origins
Painting the body with colored materials has existed in human history since prehistoric times. The Stone Age people painted with earth colors: with ocher , the black manganese oxide or with charcoal . They painted with animal hair, which they tied to sticks, or they applied the colors straight away by hand.
These natural pigments were obtained from colored earth. These powders were mixed with a binder such as. B. water and vegetable oils or animal fats. The use of the colors is proven by finds in caves such as the "Grotte Chauvet" in southern France, which is one of the most important "picture caves" in the world.
Body painting was of great importance to the Indians . The painting was used as a measure of appreciation within the group. It gave information about a man's merits in hunting and in war. The color red was considered the color of war and symbolized success, while the color blue (e.g. with the Cherokee) represented defeat and difficulties.
The face and body of the indigenous people in Papua New Guinea were painted on special festive occasions such as initiation ceremonies, funerals, hunting expeditions or healing ceremonies. On the one hand, the painting was perceived as aesthetic and, on the other hand, it also signaled the social status of a tribe member.
The possible meanings of these signs were or still are:
- Jewelry of the body
- Protection against external influences, demons and magic
- Protection of the body from insects
- medical and hygienic purposes
- camouflage
- Sadness
- War paint
- Labelling
War paint
The tradition of war paint is very old and existed in almost all cultures on earth. Even the Picts , Britons and Gauls colored their faces with blue color. The point of war paint is to give yourself a frightening appearance and thus to unsettle the enemy and instill fear in him. War paint is thus a very old form of psychological warfare . In Europe often was Waid used for blue color. Many Germanic tribes went into battle painted completely black. The Indians often used red earth colors, which earned them the derogatory term "red skins". Later, when the Native Americans had horses, they painted them with war paint and symbols. Even today, the Stone Age Papuans in Papua New Guinea use war paint.
When it comes to war paint, anonymity is a factor that should not be underestimated. When a tribe attacks its neighbors, it can be assumed that the victims are often familiar with the faces of the aggressors . After all, you met at the watering holes, at the trade, at festivals and celebrations or on other occasions. But the individual can no longer be recognized under war paint. He transforms into a stranger and can be much more brutal than he would without the defaced war paint. In modern armies, camouflage make-up is used to camouflage the face .
present
In the western world, circus artists developed a special form of body painting, the most famous form being the clown .
In the 1960s there was a resurgence of body painting in the modern western world ( body art : the body is viewed as a medium or art object), supported by the liberalization and freedom of movement of the time (see hippie ). However, to this day there is still a social discussion about whether body painting is an art form.
Today, body paints are worn especially at football games or rave events, and it is also widespread for children to paint their faces at parties and birthdays. Since the 1990s, the henna tattoo has been in vogue, especially among young people in the western world.
On October 12, 2001, Alex Barendregt founded the European body painter association ebpa (European Body Painting Association) in Austria . Due to the international participation of body painters, ebpa renamed itself in 2004 to the World Bodypainting Association (WBA). This also organizes the world championship of body and face painting in Austria. There are also more and more similar events on the subject worldwide under the patronage of the WBA.
The largest and most important event for body painting is the "World Bodypainting Festival", the world championship of body artists. The venue has been Klagenfurt am Wörthersee (Austria) since 2017. (1998–2010: Seeboden am Millstättersee; 2011–2016: Pörtschach am Wörthersee.) The world championship titles as well as other special and amateur awards are presented in 12 categories.
Political topics
At the Naked Bike Ride , for a few years in the course of the June issue of Critical Mass to demonstrate the vulnerability of cyclists, in Vienna, for the first time in Graz in 2009, and in Salzburg in 2015, the bodies are often decorated with paintings or with statements Mistake.
During an action on August 19, 2017 in a hall at Messe Wien, world champion Gabriela Hajek-Renner, a team of 60 people, created a world record-sized 3D image from 253 people on 187 square meters in just under 8 hours. According to initiator Michael Szirota, those lying on the ground and also standing on the edge form an intact underwater landscape, which should be photographed from a height of 10 m and appear printed on the Reefcalendar 2018 and serve as a warning about the burden of climate change, industry and tourism.
Islam
→ Main article: Mehndi
The form of semi-permanent painting of the body with henna has its origins in North Africa and the Middle East. It spread with the Islamic conquests over India and Southeast Asia to Indonesia . In addition to body painting with henna, there is also painting with waterproof gall inks , called Harkus (North Africa) or Khidab (Yemen), which are also often used together. Because of the black appearance of the painting, it was described by reporters, mostly very imprecisely, as black henna or confused with it.
procedure
Australia
In the mythical beliefs of the Aborigines , the creation figures made the people, the animals, the plants and the birds and they made the landscape and the spirit. This created reality and the spirits behind it set rules and these rules must be observed and maintained. Rules are lived and continued as the Aborigines hold their cooroborees . The Aborigines keep these rules, which they consider like laws, with the holding of Cooroborees and thereby also the dreamtime (also called dreamtime) lives on, whereby parts of the Cooroberees go back to the creation story of the dreamtime.
In this traditional ceremony, an event with dance, music and singing, the Aborigines wear body paint, which enables them to maintain contact with their creations. The colors that are applied come partly from deposits that have been used for thousands of years. It has been found that these colors were also used for rock painting, which was created thousands of kilometers away.
New Zealand
→ Main article: Tā moko
With the Māori in New Zealand, the " Moko " ornaments on the faces show which tribe they belong to. Insiders can read about the reputation of the wearer and who his ancestors were.
The ornaments used to be brought under the skin with sharpened animal bones and small hammers. A mixture of coconut oil, pounded plant parts, finely ground stone and soot was used as paint. Today, western tattooing techniques are used or, for tourist demonstrations, paint is painted on the face that is very similar to a real tattoo .
Japan
Body painting also plays a role among kabuki actors in Japan . Here the make-up is applied very thickly and brightly. It covers the original face and draws the character to be depicted on the actor's face. Men used to play all female roles in the Kabuki theater. That was only possible with good make-up.
Painting the face is also typical for geishas . The thick white complexion hides all wrinkles, the red mouth simulates youthfulness. This allows geishas to maintain the visual aesthetic necessary for the great art of traditional Japanese entertainment, dance and singing, even in old age.
India
In India and other Hindu countries in South Asia there are ascetic monks called Sadhu . They belong to different Hindu orders and live a simple and humble life. While most restrict body painting to forehead marks , some also coat the body with ashes or other substances. Many sadhus often only wear a loincloth.
techniques
There are several types of body painting techniques. With airbrush you can easily apply new accents to the three-dimensional body.
Grease or cream make-up - " Supracolor " - are breathable, non-toxic and can be applied with a brush or sponge. Washable. Wet make-up remains smudge-proof when it is powdered or treated with a fixative. Wet make-up or Aquacolor is suitable for large-scale body painting and is easy to remove.
Special effects such as glitter , UV-glowing make-up, mastic (for plastic change), “dermatographs”, prosthetics, hairstyle and FX make-up create images on and with bodies.
Web links
- Body painting - Lots of imagination on naked skin - from Spiegel Online
- Henna / p-phenylenediamine contact allergy: Serious dermatoses after henna tattoos PDF article Deutsches Ärzteblatt
literature
- WA Cummins: The Age of the Picts . Sutton Publishing, 1995. ISBN 0-750-909-242 .
- Julius Caesar: The Gallic War . Reclam, Stuttgart 2004. ISBN 3-15-009960-9 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ CM22 appeared almost without a shell ARGUS Steiermark, June 2009, accessed August 20, 2017.
- ↑ Naked cyclists conquer the road krone.at, o. Year, accessed August 20, 2017. - Video.
- ↑ Also in Vienna: naked cycling for traffic safety krone.at, March 13, 2017, accessed August 20, 2017.
- ↑ Bodypainting world record for the world's oceans orf.at, August 20, 2017, accessed August 20, 2017.
- ↑ Harkus. , henna-and-more
- ↑ Khidab. , henna-and-more