to come forth, show itself, open out, emerge, reveal

May 14, 2019 1:25 PM

This Hyperallergic article by Jasmine Weber has still photos of the exhibit by Michael Bradley; visit the Puaki website for the full artist's statement and some amazing and moving videos.
posted by bq (5 comments total)

Wow, that's amazing - and what a good way to demonstrate the effect.
posted by LobsterMitten at 1:36 PM on May 14, 2019 [1 favorite]

OMG literal erasure.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 1:55 PM on May 14, 2019 [1 favorite]

Hmmmm. But (as several of my Māori friends pointed out on Twitter), traditional tattoos were done with chisels and left distinct, incised ridges on the skin, which show up just fine. The premise of this exhibition seems to be based on modern needle techniques. I would like to hear a dialogue about this and especially, see an old image of someone known to be tattooed.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 3:42 PM on May 14, 2019

Example: see this 1870 image of Tamati Waka Nene: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/70/TamatiWakaNene1870s.jpg. His moko is quite visible and the ridges are clear.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 3:47 PM on May 14, 2019 [1 favorite]

Yeah ok only people born within a certain ~80 year window or so have had their facial tattoos misrepresented in photographs, for most of their lives, but some even older historical photographs might misrepresent the tattoos a little less badly?
posted by SaltySalticid at 8:21 PM on May 14, 2019