Body art is more than just throwing pre-drawn henna onto your hand, or glitter on your face for a festival. Body art is one of the most skilfully diverse and artistically expressive modern art forms, with artists who push the boundaries and adapt to their unique canvases with creativity and poise. There truly is an amazing amount of skill involved in taking the curves and shapes of a human body, and accentuating them, or even making them disappear completely into a piece of work. The Australian Body Art Festival has put not only the Sunshine Coast on the map, but also a lot of incredible, local and international artists – and it is making its return, this April, celebrating the theme of ‘Time Travel!’. This coming April 4 to the 5, artists and art lovers alike will be able to come together in Cooroy to celebrate all things body art – expressing their interpretation of the theme. If you’ve never been, it truly is a unique experience to witness these incredible talents transforming their living, breathing blank canvases into breathtaking expressions of their immense creativity.

For those not familiar with the term body art, or the festival itself allow me to explain. The genre of body art seemingly originated in the 1970s, in which the actual bodies of artists themselves or of models plays a vital role in the artistic piece. This, of course, includes piercings, ornamentation, tattoos, and plain old body paint. The human form becomes the canvas, and it makes for some mind-altering works of art. The Festival itself began back in 2008, being held in Eumundi up until 2015. In 2016 the event was not able to be held, before returning in 2017. This April it’s back and better than ever.

As with any good art festivals there are plenty of competitions and prizes to be won – thanks to some very generous sponsors of the event. There will be 6 total ‘artist‘ competitions, including; Brush and Sponge, Airbrush, Special Effects, Face painting, Wearable Art, and the photography awards, as well as a ‘best model’ competition to make things interesting. Each competition with feature a first and second place, each winner taking home either a cash prize or another prize provided by the sponsors.

There will, of course, be plenty of amazing street food and stalls on offer. If you like what you see, and want to pick up some supplies to play around with at home, there will be plenty of suppliers to choose from, not to mention some amazing artists to bond with and pick up some tips and tricks of the trade. These community events are amazing ways to create ties in your local artist community, as well as a way of supporting said local artists and suppliers, so if you have the time, and a love of good art, I urge you to stroll through the stalls and get an eye full.

For more information on this year’s event see their website here.