Born in 1960 in Milan, Italy, artist Franko B is known as a London based performance artist who also works with video, photography, installation and sculpture. Franko studied at Camberwell College of Arts in London and Chelsea College of Art and is now an established artist with a great amount of shock factor in his work. Very often Franko B uses his blood as a medium and focuses his attention on portraying “the pain, the love, the hate, the loss, the power and the fears of the human condition” in his work. “I Miss You”, is one of his most recent performance pieces that took place on May 20, 2000 in a Bar Nightclub in Birmingham, England. This piece was described with “the likeness of a catwalk show, but with his body naked, abject, monochromatic and bleeding, Franko B plays with the worlds of fashion and art whilst confronting the human form at its most existential and essential” (www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/liveculture/frankob.htm). Franko B intentionally attached his arms to catheters and bled down the canvas-covered catwalk and back amongst a sea of people and lights. Jennifer Doyle, art critic explained that the performance turned out to be a very overwhelming self-conscious experience. Completely covered in white paint Franko’s ceremonious walk seems to resemble a fashion show with its model leaving behind traces of blood on the canvas that would soon be rolled up and made into small pieces of art to follow the performance. (Doyle 1)
I first found Franko in a book titled From Arkhipov to Zittel, which is a collection of work done by the Ikon Gallery in Birmingham. Setting the book I aside I began checking out his site and found myself strangely drawn to him in a way. I could see what thoughts and ideas he puts into his work and found how I also use those concepts to drive my work as well. Each piece of his is very personal and self-exposing. My most recent work has been focusing on metaphorically describing to my audience the various challenges I take on through performance. Both Franko and myself have our main focus on human conditions and choose to portray how we see those in different ways.
Last semester my human condition was daily challenges/obstacles that each human is confronted and deals with. Because we all handle challenges differently I chose to interpret the act my brain pictures me going through and beyond those challenges presented. During my most recent performance the obstacles I set up were external ones in my environment as opposed to internal obstacles Franko set up for himself like the continuous flow of blood out of his veins.
Despite how graphic Franko B’s performances and works are, he clearly performs a message to his audience of pain that all humans endure. Even though my work is not nearly as graphic and as dark as his, I want to start incorporating some things I saw in his work that I thought could help the success in my art. I appreciated his use of the long rolls of canvas to catch everything that fell during his performance because when the performance was complete the canvas was collected and then available to use for a new piece.
Watkins, Jonathan. From Arkhipov to Zittel. Birmingham: Ikon Gallery, 2002.
Jennifer Doyle, “Critical Tears: Melodrama and Museums” in Nicholas Baume ed., Getting emotional (Boston Institute of Contemporary Art/DAP, forthcoming summer 2005).
Video Link of "I Miss You" Performance
Art Critic Jennifer Doyle's Look at Franko B
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