Performance artist Millie Brown found celebrity by vomiting up pigment
The romantic cliché of the artist might suggest that they pour their blood, sweat and tears into their artworks. While poetic, for some artists that reference has a more literal understanding.
But such decisions are reserved for the brave and the bold, and are often criticised by the public for breaching a ‘social code’. Only this month, artists have petitioned the use of blood – albeit animal’s blood – in a performance work by Austrian artist Hermann Nitsch for Dark Mofo this year. Nitsch has been using blood, urine and faeces in a ritualistic way since the early 1960s.