Eleanor Antin

Carving: a Traditional Sculpture is another example of an artist using her own body as the subject and material of her work. The performance existed as a sculpture-in-process that lasted a total of 45 days (from July 15 through August 21, 1972). During that time, Antin placed herself on a strict dieting regimen and documented the work through a series of photographs taken every morning from four different vantage points. She claimed that even though the material was her own body, she was still working in the traditional mode of Greek sculpture, and her intention was to “make an academic sculpture” – a critique of the social pressure women feel to make their bodies conform to an aesthetic or cultural ideal.