Body Language

2-channel video
Variable dimensions
2000

Body Language consists of two poems written by Richard Humann; one titled “Soft Silk” that pertains to the female, and the other “Hard Lines” that pertains to the male.

The poems were painted onto the corresponding bodies of both a female and male model. The camera circled the bodies so that the poem could be unfurled and read in the camera and then in the monitors of the two-channel video installation. The monitors are side-by-side as both male and female reveal the poems painted onto their skin. Word-by-word it’s divulged in an androgynous revelation process from top to bottom, or beginning to end.

Richard Humann • Body Language • 2-channel video • Variable dimensions • 2000

Richard Humann • Body Language • 2-channel video • Variable dimensions • 2000

Richard Humann • Body Language • 2-channel video • Variable dimensions • 2000

Richard Humann • Body Language • 2-channel video • Variable dimensions • 2000

Richard Humann • Body Language • 2-channel video • Variable dimensions • 2000

Body Language Production Still

Richard Humann, Debora Balardini

Body Language Production Still

Richard Humann, Debora Balardini

Body Language Production Still

Richard Humann, Debora Balardini

• ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

  Poem for Female:

  Soft silk
  frames the painted
  portrait red
  pursed lips
  push out muted messages
  of motherly love
  sisterly concern
  spousal commitment
  a whores disembodied
  love song

  Milky breasts white
  with weaned abandon
  liquid life
  supple announcements
  of sensual desire
  average embodiment
  of androgenous anatomy
  pride
  or poor excuses
  of personal identity

  A glorious trail
  towards blonde black brown
  tufts
  of topiary treasures
  decorate the gateway
  archway
  to unbridled pleasure
  animalistic evolutionary acts
  conceived
  carried
  and painfully propelled
  life
  comfort warmth
  home

  Poem for Male:

  Hard lines
  long features
  sharp corners
  shave away the primate within
  the morning ritual
  a clean smooth rough
  polished appearance

  Strong shoulders carry weight
  of family
  a
  the
  combined
  success and failure
  attack the frontward
  defend the backward
  relax the midsection

  Right hemisphere forward
  a retraction of emotion
  an exaggeration of bravado
  an extension of pride
  measured in inches
  miles yards feet
  moving marching running
  ahead in retreat
  huddled in cowardly victory
  triumphant in denial
  celebrated in infamy

  The alpha complexity
  looms wide thin
  shallow deep
  fear the same
  action not

Photo credits: Jonathan Fung / Richard Humann Studio