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Performance art
History
Performance art occurred in 1916 parallel to dadaism, under the umbrella of conceptual art. I think it still exists right now. I would say that it flourished in the 1960s with a lot of amazing works. (Theartstory, n.d.)
The movement was led by Tristan Tzara at that time, who was inspired by the poetry actions of dada. I would say that it flourished in the 1960s with a lot of amazing works. (Theartstory, n.d.)
What defines performance art
Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions made by the artist or other participants.
Performance art involves four basic elements: time, space, body, and presence of the artist, and the relation between the creator and the public. (mashrabiyya, 2011)
Forming reasons
I believe that It was influenced by dadaism and conceptual art.
Before that art was like oil on canvas and sculptures. However, artists at that time believe that for the artwork, the concept behind is the things that really matter. There are more media we can choose to present. like the readymade artworks from Duchamp challenged traditional sculptures.
Like these two artworks Saturn Devouring His Son and The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living. they were both created to present fear and death. But they have a different medium. Like, the paint is quite straightforward to me. But for the box with a shark. You could get a different and unique feeling of fear and death when you stand in front of it.
Performance artists believe that themselves, their bodies, and the action they make. Could be a medium to present their concept. (mashrabiyya, 2011)
Rhythm 0
Out of these performance artworks, there is one amazing artwork that I want to introduce to u guys. It’s the rhythm 0 from Serbian artist Marina Abramović.
Artwork Description
Now, I want u guys to try to imagine. In 1974, there is a gallery somewhere in the world. There is a young girl aged 23, standing in the middle of the space. There is a table in front of her and 76 objects were on that table. Some objects are a rose, a glass of water, a coat, and a shoe, but also there are a knife, a razor blade, a hammer, and a pistol with a bullet.
There are instructions say:
I'm an object. You can use everything on the table on me. I'm taking all responsibility, even killing me. And the time is 6 hours.
The beginning of this performance was easy. People will give her a glass of water to drink. They give her a rose. But very soon. there was the men took the scissor and cut her clothes, and then they will take the torn the rose and stuck it in her stomach. Somebody took a razor blade and cut her neck and drink the blood.
The women will tell the men what to do. And the men didn't rape her because it was in an art public and there were with their wives,
they carry her around and put her on the table and put a knife between her legs and somebody took the pistol, loaded the bullet and put it against her temple. And another person took the pistol away and they start to fight. And after 6 hours was finished, she start walking towards the public.
she was a mess, she was half naked, full of blood and tears were running on her face. And everybody escaped. They just ran away.
That is what happened in Marina Abramović‘’s performance artwork Rhythm 0
My Connotation, I mean it reminds me of the dark side of humankind. I believe that we all had a dark side inside of our minds. We are born and evolved to have this. When there were no rules and moral standards like the ancient times. We have to be competitive and kill each other to get food and get our genes a better chance to survive and reproduce. This artwork only hided the rules for 6 hours and we could already see the unfold of some people’s dark side, they tried to hurt, rape, and kill Abramovich.
Why Marina Abramović created this work?
So, that was my connotation of this work. And I am curious about why did the artist want to do such a crazy thing. What was the concept she wanted to present?
In an interview with Marina Abramović, she said that
It is interesting how far you can push the energy of the human body. How far you can go.
How energy is almost limitless. It’s not about the body, it’s about the mind. Which pushed you to the extremes that you could even imagine.
And it also had something to do with that particular period of time.
At that time, performance art was totally radical. The public think it was sick. There was exhibitionist, I mean people who tried to get others’ attention all the time by behaving in a silly way. She was really tired of that kind of critics. So, she want to make this piece to see how far the public can go if the artist themselves didn’t do anything. (Paraphrased from Marina Abramovic Institute. (2013). Marina Abramovic on Rhythm 0 (1974).)
I would say that as a person who lived in 21 century, I have no idea what performance art was like and what that kind of critics was like.
S3 Comparison
To better understand Abramovich’s concept, I made a research on the performance artworks at that time and find things like this Shoot by Chris burden.
In 1971, a friend of Chris Burden raised a rifle, which is a gun. at a distance of 15 feet from Chris Burden and shot his left shoulder. The performance was documented.
Burden explained shooting with: “Well, it's something to experience. How do you know what it feels like to be shot if you don't experience it? It seems interesting enough to be worth doing ... everybody watches it on TV every day. America is a big shoot-out country. (Amber Donofrio, n.d.)
Personally, I think it is ridiculous. I would say that he was doing things to attract public attention in a silly way. He is truly an exhibitionist. He became infamous instantly at that time. He was known and labeled a masochist after that.
Imagine if you lived at that time and saw someone do things like this to themselves and labeled it performance art. I would start thinking that they are no different from the clowns in the circus.
The common point for these two artworks are:
They are surely both a performance artwork in which artist used their body as a medium to express their ideas. There is no oil on the canvas.
I would like to talk about the difference a little bit more here.
The shoot by Chris burden didn’t include many interactions with the audience. Whereas rhythm 0 was mainly focused on the audience’s interactions with the artwork and artist.
That difference was exactly what Abramovich wanted. She was tired of the critics which indicated that performance artists were exhibitionists and they do crazy and silly things just for public attention. I would say that she invited the audience of rhythm 0 together to create this artwork, and they, the audience, but in this case become the artist, also became exhibitionists, you know, did the same crazy things like loading a gun and trying to shoot Abramovich.
S4 Conclusion
In conclusion, I did some research about performance art and artworks. There are surely critics of the movement. It’s amazing to find out how the artist reacts to that with her work.
Through the research on performance art, I also found how artists change their medium to express their ideas over time. How they kind of like exploring the boundary of art. Like from oil on canvas, to ready-made artworks, to musical works to their body and action.
How artist like
Research Reference List
Theartstory. Summary of Body Art. (No date). Available from https://www.theartstory.org/movement/body-art/. [Accessed 24 November 2022].
Theartstory. Tristan Tzara. (No date). Available from https://www.theartstory.org/artist/tzara-tristan/. [Accessed 24 November 2022].
mashrabiyya. Art 101: What is Performance Art? (2011)
Available from https://mashrabiyya.wordpress.com/2011/04/26/art-101-performance-art/. [Accessed 24 November 2022].
Marina Abramovic Institute. Marina Abramovic on Rhythm 0 (1974). (2013). Available from https://vimeo.com/71952791?signup=true. [Accessed 24 November 2022].
Amber Donofrio. Seeing Gray: The Power of Interpretation in Chris Burden’s Shoot By Amber Donofrio. (No date) Available from https://icstoa.wordpress.com/fall-2012-volume-i/seeing-gray-the-power-of-interpretation-in-chris-burdens-shoot-by-amber-donofrio/. [Accessed 24 November 2022].
Thank you!
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