For sculptor of real bodies, surgery is art FEATURE 06/28/2010

For sculptor of real bodies, surgery is art

FEATURE 06/28/2010 NEW YORK — Sculptors have for centuries used wood and stone to carve the human body, but Dr. Anthony Berlet prefers the real thing. Berlet is curator of an exhibition in New York that he hopes will spark a debate over the idea that plastic surgery is art. While an ordinary face-lift is routine, nose reconstruction, or rhinoplasty, is entirely different, according to Berlet. “To understand it structurally and to be able to alter it to the point where you can say this is what I want to create for you, this is how I’m going to create it, I think that takes artistic skill, a good eye and a certain amount of creativity,” Berlet said. The exhibition, titled “I Am Art: An Expression of the Visual and Artistic Process of Plastic Surgery,” features gruesome video footage and stills of operations, deformities and the results of accidents. They are meant to show that beauty, like the artistic process, is not easily achieved. “I wanted to show so much,” Berlet says of a nose operation. “It’s a whole sculpting of the tip. It’s not just a simple cut cut trim. There’s a whole creative process to it.” The pictures require a strong stomach, but that does not mean they are not, in their own way, beautiful.... MORE Source:  The Daily Tribune URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100628com3.html

COMMENTARY EDITORIAL Abject failure FRONTLINE All in the family again? FEATURE For sculptor of real bodies, surgery is art DIE HARD III Off to a sad start FEATURE West African al-Qaeda earns millions from hostage business HE SAYS Goodbye, Gloria! SHE SAYS Gloria