Ok, so the last entry made me think a lot about how modern trends in how we portray the human body in art and illustration. I notice elongated body parts a lot lately, especially necks which is interesting when you think about the women in Burma with their traditions of elongating their neck over a long period of time.
Looks a little something like this
It reminded me of a documentary I watched during my happy college times about the portrayal of the human body in art and art history, and how it related to the things we wanted to exaggerate for different reasons in different cultures. It goes on to connect it to our human relationship to our bodies and why we always desire an exaggeration [supermodel syndom?]. After many hours of visually eating art, I've noticed a trend in current art and illustrations beside the whole super-skinny thing. It's the elongated necks, limbs, almost supernaturally beautiful or surprisingly unattractive faces. In terms of the Venus statues, the sculptors of that era wanted to exaggerate the breasts, hips, ass. You know. All that junk in tha trunk. They exaggerated it because it represented fertility. Also, these are the main areas where hormones are distributed in the female body, right? Kinda interesting to think about. Then our vision of the human body changed again, and the film goes on the explain how Egyptians wanted to show the unique identiy of each subject by drawing them all in profile. Greeks and Romans wanted to show an "ideal beauty", or perfect beings. Sculpted abs, nice bicepts, ya know, the whole nine yards. It contrasts the difference between these shifts and how modern art is also still interpreting our relation to our bodies and what exaggerations of reality we are attracted to for different reasons. Now it's big tits, curves, and tiny waist sizes. Another idea of perfection which cannot realistically be achieved without large damage to our egos and maybe even the human spirit.
Here's a clip from the video. I couldn't find the whole movie obviously but if you ever have the chance to see it definitely go for it.
So, whats with new/other exaggerations of the human body?
Let's take a walk
Burmese necks?
"The custom of wearing neck rings is related to an ideal of beauty: an elongated neck.[3] Neck rings push the collarbone and ribs down.[4] The neck stretching is mostly illusory: the weight of the rings twists the collar bone and eventually the upper ribs at an angle 45 degrees lower than what is natural, causing the illusion of an elongated neck. The vertebrae do not elongate, though the space between them may increase as the intervertebral discs absorb liquid."
"Kayan women, when asked, acknowledge these ideas, but often say that their purpose for wearing the rings is cultural identity (one associated with beauty)"
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Wiki
Possibly could influence the use of elongated necks, after all inspiration comes from everywhere. I however am curious as to why they found it beautiful. Maybe there is some symbolism in wanting our necks longer and our vantagepoint far higher than originally. Sense of wisdom perhaps?
Skinniness/elongated ligments- possibly to accentuate the use of S-Curve, a commonly occuring shape which we are naturally attracted to.
Seems that we keep wanting to draw our bodies longer and for them to have more contrast. If you think about why we're exaggerating certian parts, it becomes a strange little thought cloud indeed. Are we seeing ourselves in the future? Somehow needing to adapt? Are we trying to see perfection in naturally occurring shapes and thus giving ourselves un-natural expectations of ourselves?
This was just a study For Curiosities Sake.
If you have any other excellent examples of body exaggerations in art, comment!
->No I don't own these images. Though I wish I did :/
