"Alexander McQueen." Savage Beauty: The Aesthetics of Spectacle & The Body Politics in Fashion. Date Completed: December 2013. Brief: A Brief History of Shock - Final Paper. A quick glance at the history of the visual and performance arts easily reveals how shock has evolved from mere technique to an agent of change. However, what grants McQueen particular uniqueness as a shock artist is his medium of avant-garde expression: clothes. But perhaps the more important canvas of McQueen was not fabric nor cloth, but the female body. By analyzing his most notable runway shows, I seek to demonstrate how five themes of shock art can be grouped under one: the woman as the site of tactic experimentation.