When you wake up every morning and get dressed, you probably don’t stop to think that you’re taking part in a millennia-old cultural tradition. How you choose to look is all part of the long history of humans altering their appearance to make a statement - from self-expression and individuality to signalling which group you belong to.
Join Eleanor Janega and a panel of experts to explore the weird, wonderful and fascinating history of body modification - from tattoos to outlandish clothing and hairdos, piercings to diets.
The panel comprises Dr Matt Lodder of the University of Essex, an art historian who works on tattoos and body piercings; Dr Susan Vincent from the University of York, a cultural historian of clothing and hair; and Dr Eleanor Barnett from Cardiff University, who is a cultural and religious historian with a particular interest in the history of food.
Ask yourself why you chose to present yourself the way you did today - and how that decision is part of an age long process of body modification that is inherently human.
Up Next in Art
-
Painting Elizabeth: Creating a Royal ...
Elizabeth I is one of the most iconic figures from British history - her image can be recognised in an instant. But this was no mistake, for Elizabeth’s portraits were an audacious act of spin to cement her image of female majesty. In this documentary Dr Nicola Tallis and Prof Anna Whitelock take...
-
The Fight to Paint
Women have been fighting to be seen as professional artists for hundreds of years.
Dr Kate Lister explores a brand new exhibition at the Tate Britain that features the work of over 100 female professional artists: 'Now You See Us: Women Artists in Britain 1520–1920'. Kate investigates the chall...
-
War Art of the Western Front
It was the war to end all wars. In 1914, catastrophe struck Europe as great power diplomacy failed and alliance systems mobilised vast armies against one another in a conflict that dragged on in bloody stalemate for four long years. Nations geared their entire economies towards victory and called...
10 Comments