Gotye - Somebody That I Used To Know (feat. Kimbra)
If you are one of the more than 200 million people who have viewed the film clip for the Gotye song "Somebody That I Used to Know" you will be familiar with the extraordinary transformation of the bodies of the Belgian-Australian musician and New Zealand singer/songwriter Kimbra into amazing works of art that gradually fade into a background image until both are totally camouflaged.
The amazing metamorphosis that takes place in the video is thanks to Australian artist Emma Hack, whose extensive experience as a 'skin illustrator' caught the attention of the video's director Natasha Pincus. Hack, an Adelaide-based artist, is well known in Australia and internationally for her extraordinary photos of painted bodies camouflaged against often complex background images. Her artworks have grown in popularity since her so-called "Wallpaper Collection," featuring models against the '60s- and '70s-era wallpaper designs. Now she paints her own canvas backgrounds; each of her photographic artwork takes eight to fifteen hours to complete.
For the "Somebody I Used to Know" video, Emma worked closely with Gotye himself on the background design — the video's painting is actually based on an '80s work by Gotye’s artist father Frank de Backer, whose work is also featured on the cover and inside of the CD packaging of the album "Making Mirrors.
Human Bodies Beautifully Blended Into Landscapes
Whether he's blending bodies into the landscape or creating vivid silhouettes that stand out against a brilliant backdrop, photographer Jean-Paul Bourdier's Bodyscapes collection is insanely gorgeous. The California-based photographer combines performance art, body paints, and magnificent landscapes to create these stunning images where natural human bodies intertwine with the environment.
The artist chooses to photograph only on film, using no digital manipulation, which awakens a sense of timeless wonder in the traditionally created images. His photographs often have a strong sense of symmetry, both in shape and in featured color palettes. Mirroring the landscape, the bodies complement each scene with just the right visual combinations of physical interruption and environmental serenity.
Bourdier says "Rather than being a mere recording of an encounter between event and photographer, the photograph is an event of its own: long prepared, and yet full of unexpected moments; a still manifestation of an encounter between desert light, body light, and camera eye."
Family Tree, 2000, New York, USA
I have been feeling pain on the left side of my chest for over a year, which lately seems to have gotten worse. I sense an ill omen and am afraid that something unpredictable might happen.
When a mother squeezes out the last bit of her energy, a new life eventually emerges. There are numerous events in our lives over which we have no control.
More culture is slowly smothering us and turning our faces black. It is impossible to take away your inborn blood and personality. From a shadow in the morning, then suddenly into the dark night, the first cry of life to a white-haired man, standing lonely in front of window, a last peek of the world and a remembrance of an illusory life.
In my serial self-portrait I found a world which Rembrandt forgot. I am trying to extend his moment.
I invited 3 calligraphers to write texts on my face from early morning until night. I told them what they should write and to always keep a serious attitude when writing the texts even when my face turns to dark. My face followed the daylight till it slowly darkened. I cannot tell who I am. My identity has disappeared.
This work speaks about a family story, a spirit of family. In the middle of my forehead, the text means "Move the Mountain by Fool (Yu Kong Yi Shan)". This traditional Chinese story is known by all common people, it is about determination and challenge. If you really want to do something, then it could really happen. Other texts are about human fate, like a kind of divination. Your eyes, nose, mouth, ears, cheekbone, and moles indicate your future, wealth, sex, disease, etc. I always feel that some mysterious fate surrounds human life which you can do nothing about, you can do nothing to control it, it just happened.
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