Human Marks

Heavily illustrated, this publication features 30 artists who worked during the pivotal period between 1948 and 1978, and practiced in a range of media from painting and sculpture to printmaking, drawing and architecture. Featuring an introductory essay by exhibition curator Pantea Haghighi that surveys the range of artistic and political influences on the emergence of Iranian modernisms, and a selection of focused essays by scholars and curators Fereshteh Daftari, Davood Madadpoor and Hans Ulrich Obrist, Modern Iran and the Avant-Gardes, 194878 is a timely addition to the scholarship on both alternate modernisms and the history of Iranian art. Human Marks: Tattooing in Contemporary Art explores convergences between tattoo culture and global contemporary art. Presenting a range of media by sixteen artists who also tattoo, this richly illustrated book unpacks how the ethics, strategies, and concerns of tattooing shape the artists studio practices in experimental and revelatory ways. Through an introductory essay, artist profiles, and additional texts and interviews, Human Marks presents the full creative spectrum of artists who maintain both tattoo and studio practices to ask what the world of fine art can learn from todays tattoo community. With a range of surprising mediafrom paintings made with human blood to wearable works in silicone and even perfumerythemes of ritual, ethics, and identity tie together the materially dynamic, unexpected, and challenging artwork featured in Human Marks. Artist Profiles: Kaur Alia Ahmed, Oz Bardos, Makoto Chi, Nassim Dayoub, Evan Paul English, Gesiye, Don Ed Hardy, Ciara Havishya, Dr. Lakra, Duke Riley, Miller Robinson, Tamara Santibaez, Lyric Shen, Jayna Won. Additional contributions by: Kaur Alia Ahmed, Makoto Chi, Nassim Dayoub, Don Ed Hardy, Tamara Santibaez, Fiona Smith, and Stevie Soares, Marcia Tucker, and V. Vale