According to the Bible, the first human being god created was Adam, and in order not to make him too lonely, he took a rib out of his body, created Eve, and let the two people marry and live in the Garden of Eden, and in this way, there were men and women in the world, and Adam and Eve became the ancestors of mankind and began to reproduce.
This is the Christian vision of the origin of mankind, a religious myth, but there is one person who has made it a reality, he is He Yunchang, who is called "crazy" in the field of contemporary art.
He Yunchang, born in Yunnan in 1967, graduated from Yunnan Art School at the age of 24 and began working. Two years later, He Yunchang quit his job and began to devote himself to his artistic work, and the direction he chose was performance art, which was also a field of radical nature that he loved.
In more than ten years, He Yunchang has made many shocking works, which have quickly attracted the attention of the mainstream art world.
In 2008, He Yunchang began to plan his new work, "A Rib", he wanted to use the story of Adam and Eve in the Christian creation myth to express the relationship between women and men, in his view, the connection between the sexes is deep in the bone marrow, only with his own ribs can you express this theme to the extreme.
In order to complete this work, he had to solve a lot of difficult problems, the first of which was how to get his ribs. In the absence of diseases, it is impossible for a regular hospital to perform rib surgery, He Yunchang ran all over the large and small hospitals, and inquired about the relatives and friends who could inquire, but still could not find a way.
In the long search, three years of time passed in a flash, he Yunchang to take his ribs news spread throughout the circle around him, many people know the nature of his work, all expressed understanding, but more people think that he wants to hurt his body for the so-called art, it is crazy, He Yunchang laughed at this, he did not give up the "a rib" project, the top priority is to quickly find someone who is willing to operate on himself.
Soon after, He Yunchang negotiated with a private hospital, and the other party promised to operate on him, lying on the bed of the operation, and he showed a happy smile. The operation went smoothly, except for a scar, He Yunchang's body did not show adverse symptoms, and from the doctor's hand, he took the 8th rib in his left abdominal cavity.
The recovery of the body took some time, and He Yunchang began the next step of the project almost at the same time as the doctor announced the discharge, that is, to make a necklace out of this rib. In the hands of the craftsmen, the rib was polished and decorated, and then decorated with gold, and turned into a necklace that could be worn, and He Yunchang named it "Luminous".
The necklace "Luminous" is made of He Yunchang's ribs, and the only way it can contact women is to be worn by women, which is why He Yunchang made it into a necklace. So who to let participate in this project, He Yunchang encountered his second problem.
This bachelor who has been buried in artistic creation for many years has no close girlfriend, and even if he finds it, the woman must be able to understand his work and be willing to wear a somewhat scary necklace made of bone and blood on his neck, the girlfriend may not be difficult to find, but the girlfriend who can accept the "luminous" necklace may not be so easy to find.
For "A Rib", most of the women He Yunchang came into contact with feel very mad, but the circle of artists is still different from ordinary people after all, after a period of searching and getting along, He Yunchang has experienced 5 emotions, and it can be said that he has found 5 women he loves deeply.
When he put the "Luminous" necklace on the necks of five women, He Yunchang felt the experience he wanted to achieve, he took photos with several women wearing necklaces, and the most intimate connection between men and women was preserved at this time, so that "A Rib" was successfully completed and caused quite a stir in the art circle at that time.
He Yunchang's performance art is characterized by boldness and radicalism, in addition to works like "A Rib", he once did a work called a vision test, the content of which is to look directly at an electrified light bulb with the naked eye, you may think it is not a big deal, but He Yunchang has always looked at the glowing light bulb up close during the entire hour-long experiment, and the average person can't even hold on for a few minutes.
The so-called vision test, in fact, test is a physiological and psychological limit, in this long tens of minutes, not only He Yunchang's eyeballs are undergoing a huge test, his heart is also being looked at directly by the light bulb at the same time, in such an invisible interaction, the value of art was quietly born.
Compared with other kinds of art forms, performance art is often questioned and criticized by ordinary people because of a more direct and explicit temptation, but the operations and ideas that seem strange and incomprehensible to them actually have extraordinary significance for the artist himself, such as "A Rib" that hurts the body, there are many works in the art field, and the beauty of which needs to be deeply understood to be discovered.