(Curatorial caption, accessed 23 November 2014)
This photograph relates to a performance called 'Lips of Thomas' from 1973, in which the artist tested her physical endurance. In the manner of offering herself as a ritual sacrifice, Abramovic ate a kilogram of honey, drank a litre of red wine, and cut a five-pointed star into her stomach with a razor blade. She then whipped herself until she could no longer feel any pain and finally lay on a cross made of ice. The photograph is from a portfolio called 'Dear Stieglitz,' named in homage to Alfred Stieglitz, the photographer and gallery owner who published the art-photography journal 'Camera Work' in the early Twentieth century. The portfolio features the work of artists whose photography 'shows an obvious, personal and also very outspoken attitude towards their surroundings.'
