The Stelarc Collection is the moving image archive of Australian performance artist Stelarc. The collection consists of documentation of events and performances throughout the career of the pioneering body artist from the 1970s to the 2000s. Renowned for pushing his body to its limits through durational performance, body modification and surgical enhancement, Stelarc has established a decades-long practice that explores the intersection between the human body and technology, proposing a post-human understanding of the world. This unique archive of video and photographic documentation spans the artist’s early hook suspensions and internal body probes to performances with a robotic third arm and experiments in virtual realities.
The collection is housed on a variety of formats used since the introduction of video in the 1970s, including reel-to-reel tape, VHS, U-Matic, SP Betacam and Mini DV. These variable formats are currently being digitised to ensure the preservation and legacy of the artist’s archive.
The Stelarc Collection has been generously donated to ACMI by the artist through the Cultural Gifts Program.
Content notification
Our collection comprises over 40,000 moving image works, acquired and catalogued between the 1940s and early 2000s. As a result, some items may reflect outdated, offensive and possibly harmful views and opinions. ACMI is working to identify and redress such usages.
Learn more about our collection and our collection policy here. If you come across harmful content on our website that you would like to report, let us know.
How to watch
Works in this group have been digitised and are viewable by following the links below.
Collection
In ACMI's collection
Credits
Collection metadata
ACMI Identifier
B2004390
Subject category
Digital Art
Object Types
Moving Image Collection