zhang huan and performance art

Body art subverts all traditional definitions of art. When artists use their own bodies as an art material, normal distinctions between creator and created disappear. By becoming art themselves, they render disinterested aesthetic judgments of the art object absurd or irrelevant. Because the "artwork" is also a sentient, reasoning being, body art brings moral, ethical, and political issues into play.
-Eleanor Heartney from Huan's website

i came across this image recently in one of my art books. what really impacted me was the inclusion of tethered dogs in a performance that seems pretty intense to begin with. for me, it makes the piece even stranger and more provocative. the dogs are at once wild animals and yet domesticated. their indifference to both art and another's suffering intensifies the loneliness and futility of the performance. i've read that this piece was meant to reference huan's feeling of alienation in his new home of New York. in his futile attempt to warm the ice with his body, the reverse effect happened, and the ice drove his body temperature dangerously low. his ambitious intentions were thwarted by harsh reality at the risk of serious injury. the tethered dogs know nothing of this, the performance's meaning is lost on them. nor are they guardians for huan. they are there only because they are tied there. this strange coexistence is unsettling and not easy to resolve. it seems to be the personification of alienation and the feelings of impotence and futility that must surely follow.