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Is fly art "high art"? Either way, this trend has legs! AHAHAHA. Sorry. OK, anyway, so British sculptor Jessica Harrison just made herself false eyelashes out of flies' legs. You can watch the video: She just blinks a lot. That's really it.
We wish she'd shared her brand of lash glue. (We're partial to the Shu Uemura.) This is about as appealing as those probably-sold-for-$3-million Damien Hirst glass boxes filled with cows' heads, flies and maggots. Then again, we sort of sensed that "insect beauty" was on the rise ever since we read about Demi Moore and her weird, bloodsucking-leech beauty treatments a few years ago. (Stories like that one, P.S., are why we read the U.K. tabloids in lieu of The New York Times.)
Anyway, flylashes. So, of course, PETA has condemned Jessica. And you just know that Lady Gaga is sooo jealous she didn't think of this first. She's somewhere right now wearing a weird vintage Alexander McQueen surgical mask or something, screaming at her creative team to step their bizarro-animal-parts-accessories game up. Remember how much media attention that dead-mouse-brooch ridiculousness garnered Marc Jacobs' ex-boyfriend and Courtney Love?
Were we a member of Team Gaga, we think we'd advise her to wear leeches on her nipples to the VMAs. But that's just us.
You can see the whole video -- and decide for yourself -- after the jump.
Flylashes from Jessica Harrison on Vimeo.
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Wednesday 11 August
By Jessica harrison
PLEASE NOTE - FLIES WERE NOT KILLED OR TORTURED TO MAKE THIS VIDEO - some were collected from window sills in various locations and some hatched from maggots bought from a fishing tackle shop that were destined for the end of a fishing line - they lived, flew and ate before dying of natural causes after their normal life span. The flies actually got to hatch and live instead of being used as bait - which involves being pierced with a hook through their middle whilst still alive.
Made as part of a series of works looking into genetic manipulation, experimentation and xenotransplantation, Flylashes was intended as a play on the format of the Chimera, highlighting the use of the fly in the investigation of genetics and its similarity to the structure of human DNA. The series of work sought to explore the balance between advanced scientific and medical developments with our cultural strive for perfection, and at the same time expose and acknowledge society's underlying fear and mistrust of modified bodies.
Flylashes was made using legs from around 5 flies that were not killed to create the video clip. The work is not intended as a style statement, or as a call to pull apart flies to use as beauty enhancements, but a device to prompt questions about our thoughts and fears surrounding genetic manipulation and the integrity of the body.
I have respect for all creatures, however small and condemn any kind of animal cruelty.
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Wednesday 18 August
By mel
YUK......
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Thursday 19 August
By Myckelle
...eww.
Do you know what FLIES like to LAND ON?!? I dont like thinking about where those little legs have been.
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