The transformation of a body into a piece of art is a very timely approach for contemporary artists. Some question this category due to the number of discussions where its nature is sometimes considered fluid. For example, you can see it in Sarah Lucas's series "Nudes," where she rephrases a human body as plaster. On the other hand, some emerging artists find inspiration in this piece and quote it in a precise way.

Matvey Stasyuk produced a loop video, "Cables Life," where Lucas's method rearranged into a bundle of wires that seem to be some symbiotic life-form that can tangle and untangle on its own. The artist uses white background on purpose, so his "model" would be a constant focal point as if it is a sculpture. Furthermore, the crunchy sound Stasyuk used in his piece is a continuous reminder that we are dealing with a new type of body – the one that cyborgs have. It leads us to the thought that the artist could have also been influenced by the text written by Donna Haraway, "A Cyborg Manifesto." In this case, the artist's approach is logical – he quotes Lukas's idea as a visual starting point. Stasyuk inserts bits of today's digital aesthetics where we often deal with a robotic body where cables can be understood as blood vessels. But according to the name of his piece, we can categorize it as a visual study as well.

Olga Vishnevetskaya works with another idea – a body that can fly as we see it in Marc Chagall's paintings. Her homage restructures the great classic's idea. Her flying people are falling from the sky, as the ancient Greece hero Icarus came too close to the sun. But unlike the myth hero, Vishnevetskaya's characters make a swirl, so we can imagine that the falling man figure can return to the top at some point. This visual whirlpool makes a still image dynamic. The artist creates a space where chagallesque visual code meets references from a beautiful ancient myth that creates a poetic vision of a dream that someday humankind can fly like birds.

Anna Kalugina works with the body construct in Gerhard Richter and Francis Bacon's visual approach of a simulacrum of a body. Her imagery demonstrates models who seem to exist in between worlds. Kalugina intentionally uses low-key coloring and a greyish palette to highlight her visual agenda. This way, we can assume that the artist refers to a Deleuzian body without organs. It means that Kalugina intentionally demonstrates an empty vessel that can become anything the viewer wants.

So, what is the body in contemporary art? It is not a solid construct that has strict rules of depiction. Every time we see an image where a body is interpreted not in the academic art way, we can still find numerous references and connotations an artist worked with.