"TRACE" and "MARK" are defining terms within the lexicon of the modern art world. Both terms give a work of art deeper meaning and offer some transcendence beyond its simply being displayed to admire duty. TIBA is a new word being introduced into art's growing labyrinth of created works, and most everyone has never heard of it. It is defined as "Temporarily In Body Art" (TIBA) and consists of using spinal instrumentation that has been explanted from patients for medically necessary indications and now being used to create images. In another Blog I explain the ethically of doing this.

TRACE, in reference to TIBA, implies that the medium (screws, rods, etc) have a temporal and embodied biological history of having been inside a vulnerable living bodies and is now being used as art. A work of art having TRACE can never lose it. The image of the "Warty Pig" above is a modern example of MARK. Every piece of art being created in today's world is demonstrating MARK. Essentially MARK is the action of leaving something from this time, this culture, this world, for any one or thing in the future to see that we, the artists, were here.

The first four works of TIBA are a series of "Prehistoric Cave Paintings". The "Warty Pig" is #4 in this series. My reason for using the TIBA medium to create images of ancient cave paintings is to contrast our prehistoric ancestral artists using what was available to them tens of thousands of years ago to create images, their MARK, with similar images from the industrial present, our MARK, which in this case creates a dialogue between the very old and their plant and animal culture, with the very new and our industrial culture.

The "Warty Pig" photograph is copyrighted but the following is a URL that features its image. https://smarthistory.org/oldest-cave-art-found-in-sulawesi/

It is important to understand the images of these cave paintings in TIBA are in fact only modern reflections or representations of groups of subjects shown in those images. Each TIBA image is not meant to "copy" or "reproduce" any one image.