Jillian Mayer: Artist Chews Off Her Own Arms For Art Basel (PHOTOS)

Miami artist Jillian Mayer has chewed off her own arms for Art Basel. In "H.I.L.M.D.A.," a video in Love Trips: a Triptych on Love on view at World Class Boxing this week, the artist performs as Venus de Milo. At the start of the video, the living statue has her arms in place. By the end, however, there are just bloody nubs and Mayer's smiling, blood-dripping mouth.

Removing the first arm is a clean break. Mayer simply uses her good arm to rip the other one right off. The only way Venus can rid herself of the remaining arm, however, is with her teeth. And if the sight of a young woman chewing off her own arm doesn't hit you hard in the gut, the grotesque sound effects surely will.

Mayer told the Huffington Post, "It is a critique on beauty. Venus de Milo knowingly rips her arms from her torso as a notion of self-sacrifice in order to seek beauty and worldly admiration. By making the gesture of arm removal a choice for Venus, the ideal form of Western beauty becomes empowered."

The title of the work is a play on Marcel Duchamp's L.H.O.O.Q., Mayer adds. "Like Duchamp's seminal work, 'H.I.L.M.D.A' also forces viewers to reexamine the living Venus that stands before an audience. It recontextualizes both the accepted meaning of the original work, context, and narrative." What does Mayer's acronym mean? Well, it's not a secret, but she'd much rather hear your best guess. (How I Lost My Darn Arms?)

The video triptych, Everyone's Been Lost at Sea, also includes "Temporarily Yours," which examines cinematic love scenes; and "endless lava, I wish for", in which Mayer does acrobatics within the mouth of a spewing volcano.

On the inspiration behind these videos, Mayer says "I was thinking about love in general, different phases of it, and the practices and rituals one undergoes to maintain it."

With all the attention centered on international and national artists in Miami during Art Basel, it just might take a local chewing off his or her arms to get noticed. But Mayer has a much more positive outlook.

"It is a great time for emerging Miami artists to be aligned with an international art presence. Locals have the advantage of being connected to the community. We have more access to secret or off-the-map venues. Those places are potential exhibition spaces for Miami artists."

If you dare, take a peek at the photos.

See Love Trips at World Class Boxing. The collection is open through Saturday, 10am to 4pm., during Art Basel Miami Beach. Contact: 305-438-9908 or worldclassboxing.org.

Comments

[Giovanne Steudel]

04:06 PM on 12/23/2011

Her real arms are actually her "breasts". She wanted the act to be as real as possible, so then people would be horrified by this "madness". Or maybe it's just photoshop and there were no real live act, which is highly unlikable... I guess.

The thing is: OF COURSE it isn't real.

[DoberDaneGirl]

05:55 AM on 12/03/2011

Stay tuned for her next performance piece called, "The hemorrhoids".

[satanlite]

05:11 PM on 12/02/2011

Reminds me of a Monty Python film...

[Sabra Bruning]

07:57 PM on 12/01/2011

Hard act to follow.

Now what's she going to do?

She'll have to take off one leg, then
another, then her lower torso, then the
upper torse and then ....bubbye.

Ta~da! Her last words will be "thank you,
thank you!" And she have to eat her own head.

(Applause, applause.)

Sheeesh, where do we GET these people!?

[HistoryisSerious]

06:40 PM on 12/02/2011

"The Aristocrats!"

[Diana Bitritto]

06:43 PM on 12/01/2011

That had to be Photoshopped. She would have bled to death.

[Mary Ross82]

05:35 AM on 03/14/2012

They weren't lol she held her arms behind her and then fake stumps were attached. All wounds were SFXed

[Erica Bowshier]

10:48 AM on 12/01/2011

Kind of makes you wonder what an amputee or someone born without arms would think of it? Would they appreciate her 'art' or be pi$$ed about it??

[satanlite]

05:12 PM on 12/02/2011

Who cares.

[kp1975]

09:36 AM on 12/01/2011

My best guess is that, as an artist, she will want to do more art. Therefore it is only logical that she would use special effects to produce the grotesque images. No artist would willingly take away their means of being able to create... unless there are deep and certifiable issues lurking under the surface, which for her I hope is not the case.

[RobertHenryEller]

07:44 AM on 12/01/2011

The video may be compelling.

But the pseudo-aesthetic explanation is pure bs.

Is Pat Robertson running an art school as well as a law school?

[Sabra Bruning]

07:57 PM on 12/01/2011

Stupid remark.

He's a wonderful man.

[HistoryisSerious]

06:42 PM on 12/02/2011

Pat "Haiti made a pact with the Devil" Robertson is a wonderful man? You need your head examined.

[Shanghaid Expat]

03:36 AM on 12/01/2011

Jeeze, this isn't new. I just saw it four week's earlier on The Simpsons' Halloween Special when Homer chewed off his limbs trying to get to the candy while pinned under a rock.

[karmabites2011]

03:21 AM on 12/01/2011

Self-mutilation is art?

[morning697]

06:31 AM on 12/01/2011

I think having a dog chewing on the discarded limb would have added a bit more realism to her "art" Waste of good meat. I guess what idiots call art is what normal folks call garbage

[satanlite]

05:13 PM on 12/02/2011

If you aren't pi$$ing someone off it isn't art.

[abencoxe]

10:23 PM on 11/30/2011

Oh really?

[collectsrocks]

09:22 PM on 11/30/2011

Better she chew off her arms than mine imo.

[nnoda002]

08:57 PM on 11/30/2011

Art will always need an explanation. Whenever you go to art galleries...aren't there always typed-up descriptions next to works of art? Some people benefit without it but others, looking to understand, benefit from artististic explanations all the time. After reading what Jillian Mayer meant to express with this piece I'm now able to understand and personally, appreciate her artistic intentions. On the plus side, we should be proud of her success. She's done a lot for the Miami art scene.

[RandyMan7027]

08:09 PM on 11/30/2011

yawn

[Carla Rae H]

07:31 PM on 11/30/2011

That is not art. That is idiocy.

[HistoryisSerious]

09:07 PM on 11/30/2011

art that is idiotic is still art. art that sucks is art. shallow, meaningless, silly art is still art.

you can argue till the world ends about whether it's good or not, but saying it's not art is just stupid.

[Carla Rae H]

04:53 AM on 12/01/2011

Just because a person can urinate in a jar and stick a crucifix in it, that does not mean it is art. Chewing off an arm isn't art. I am fortunate enough to know some real artists. A few who are nationally and internationally known. Most completely unknown. I have a sister who is an excellent artist whose art is in such demand that it sells before she even starts a project. I don't consider myself an artist, but even my work shows much more promise than this garbage. This is shock value and its sole intention is to get attention and put the so-called artist above a world of talented people for purposes of making money. If this person has any artistic talent at all, it does not show in this work. If she has any artistic talent at all, she has betrayed it in her effort to shock people into getting their attention and the only reason to do that is a hope of becoming the next 'crucifix in urine' level fraud who claims to be an artist. And yes, that's all about money. Real artists know that art isn't about money. It's about their craft. Some are fortunate enough to get the exposure their talent deserves and make money with it. Most artists, however, never make any real money from their work and are satisfied with being creative for purposes of being creative alone.

[satanlite]

05:13 PM on 12/02/2011

Get back to Dancing with the Stars with you.

[Carla Rae H]

05:44 PM on 12/02/2011

Sorry to disappoint you, but I've never seen even a single episode of Dancing with the Stars. Nor do I have any intention of doing so as I do not watch television and find much better things with which to occupy myself - including real art.