Art Inflamed

Wow. Thanks to Ectoplasmosis for bringing our attention to Ariana Page Russel, a truly Deviant Artist who turns an irritating skin condition into somatic scripture, and then into photographs. These are most decidedly not scars from cutting - on the contrary, the marks on the legs in this picture only existed for about half an hour.

Russel suffers from dermatographia (literally, "written on the skin"), an apt name for a skin condition marked by a hypersensitivity to scratches or abrasions that causes a temporary inflammation. Rather than suffer senselessly, Russel uses her pathology as an artistic medium, scrawling designs and writing onto her body and photographing the resulting dermatographic patterns.

Out of suffering, art. Camile Paglia is squealing somewhere over the deliciousness of this "sacred profanity" - bravissimo!

Ariana Page Russel [Artist Site]