For Tuesday Week 4 read these two very short pieces about performance art:
Tehching Hsieh & Marina Abramovic interview each other
The Rise of Performance Art
In the comments section of this post write 2 questions that came up for you from the articles - they can be about things you don't understand or things you think are interesting and want to discuss.
Also choose one of the performance projects mentioned in these reading that stands out to you as being curious, exciting, frustrating or compelling. Note the performance you chose to focus on in the comments with a brief description of how it made you feel and what it made you think about.
Comments are due before class on Tuesday.
The Artist Is Present stands out to me the most. It feels highly emotional. Staring into someone's eyes for a long period of time is exhausting so to me this performance is therapeutic, cathartic, relieving. The way a hug forces tears when you're holding them back. Sitting there would 100% force tears out of me (after a few awkward laughs).
ReplyDelete1. When Klaus Biesenbach talks about performance art and the younger generation is he suggesting that because of new technology and social media; we are all constantly performing?
2. What does Marina mean when she says both of their work is "spiritual"?
The work that stands out the most to me is Marina's work in which she is at the will of the bow and arrow. Though it isn't discussed in it's entirety, I have seen the footage. Relying on both partners to not kill Marina is extremely terrifying to me. I know I wouldn't have the endurance to hold either the bow or the arrow. The fact that they were lovers added to the intensity of the piece.
ReplyDelete1. How does masturbation under a bridge count as performance art? He was heard but not seen and masturbated for 8 hours a day? Seems creepy, not artistic.
2. How does using bodies to answer specific questions like "how long since the shooting of a man crossing the Berlin Wall?" make the actors "human search engines"?
1) Why is the arrow pointed at Marina and not Ulay? I seems there are several layers of meaning in this work, one of male dominance and the sexual imbalance of active male/ passive female roles, and symbolically or superficially, they are both Sagittarius; the archer points his arrow to his desire and peruses it with fervor, Marina is the object of this desire, or is objectified.
ReplyDelete2)Is the rise of performance art also changing the meaning of the author, if the art is the artist and not an object separate from bot the artist and the viewer?
What fascinated me was Hsieh talking about how his art can not be separated from life, they are one and the same. I enjoyed his rationale about the duration of his work being set in one year increments. A new year is a time to start over, both symbolically in all culture and physically as the suns rotation begins again, yet time and life are linear, one builds up on the other. I found this idea very satisfying in its completeness.
1) Is performance art just a more museum worthy term for other kinds of performance that already exist? I.e. dance, theater, music, improv, etc.
ReplyDelete2) What element of performance art carries the true weight? What part of it has the potency? Is it putting yourself of display? Being vulnerable? Audience participation? Calling physical attention to things we tend to ignore? The space is takes up? Having an experience that occurs to the artist and viewer simultaneously?
The work that stood out to me most is nearly all of Tehching Hsieh performances. Mostly because I disagree with nearly everything he did. A lot of his work seems to focus on a type of endurance and limiting of oneself. And what I think I find frustrating is his seemingly lackadaisical approach to them. In two of his works he lived as a homeless man and another as a prisoner. I find this slightly offensive as this is reality for some people. Forced hardship is a luxury. It is hard for me to reconcile the idea that some people don't know what true struggle is but will turn it into art. It's not noble if you get to pack it in after a year and go back to your normal life.
Tehching Hsieh
ReplyDeleteWhat's the point of him being homeless for a year when there are plenty of people already been homeless for years?
What does he mean creating community events where he is the witness not the performer? Like have a fundraiser at his house but hide in the walls and peek out through paintings?
The rise of performance art
Why does everything have to be so long? Is it just so enough people can wander up and see it? No one got sick of 12 hours of "Marriage of Figaro?"
Is length or size the main draw of these sort of things?
I suppose I like the ideas a lot in Tehching Hsieh's interview, I just wouldn't be all that interested in his work. Maybe it is because a lot of his work is much more impactful as a performer than it is to me as an audience member. For example, his one year living as a homeless person. If I lived for a year without going inside a building, then yeah, that would be extremely impactful on my life. I would experience all types of things and learn and change, etc. But for him to do it and me to just observe snippets, it sort of diminishes the whole idea.
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ReplyDelete1) For artists who for perform long term (up to a year) how do they maintain a family life or sustain a living? Do these performances generate income?
ReplyDelete2) If so, at what point does performance cross the line from being art to becoming commercial/capitalist performance?
Interesting: Marina Abramovic's The Artist in Present. And can be uncomfortable for strangers to sit still and face one another for more than a few seconds at a time. If I were there I don't think I could resist initiating a staring contest with her.
1. How do long term performance artists mentally prepare themselves to stick to their project?
ReplyDelete2. Hsieh says that during his 13 year project it exiled him from his life. Do they go into projects with a set line for how far they will take it before quitting?
Interesting: I find it interesting how Hsieh could mentally deal with giving that much time into his work. I dont think most people would have the dedication or determination to continue on a year long project. I would face a lot of problems even for a month and the fact that he would try years ( and even a 13 year project!)
In the Rise of Performance Art article I am really interested in the performance titled Bliss by Ragnar Kjartansson which incorporates elements of theater and music by using Opera which blurs the lines between performance art and traditional theater performances. This makes me wonder,
ReplyDelete1. What differentiates what we would traditionally consider Theater from Performance Art?
2. As someone who works in the theater world, how can elements of performance art be incorporated and makes me think about how actors and performance artists are viewed and treated differently. What separates them?
The article, The Rise of Performance Art, was interesting to me as it described how performance art is changing as it becomes more popular in the modern age. Artists are now incorporating a wide range of different elements into their performances, from dancing to sculpting, or even film and theater. I find the performance done by Than Hussein Clark in 2013 to be absolutely fascinating for his ability to combine so many different art elements into one, four hour piece.
ReplyDelete1.) When creating a piece that uses a variety of different art elements, does the artist still start by conceptualizing the meaning/message behind the performance?
2.) The end of the article explains how technology has changed the artist's and public's perception of performance art, but is it that much of a stretch to assume that technology will soon be used in the actual performances?
The article, The Rise of Performance Art, was interesting to me as it described how performance art is changing as it becomes more popular in the modern age. Artists are now incorporating a wide range of different elements into their performances, from dancing to sculpting, or even film and theater. I find the performance done by Than Hussein Clark in 2013 to be absolutely fascinating for his ability to combine so many different art elements into one, four hour piece.
ReplyDelete1.) When creating a piece that uses a variety of different art elements, does the artist still start by conceptualizing the meaning/message behind the performance?
2.) The end of the article explains how technology has changed the artist's and public's perception of performance art, but is it that much of a stretch to assume that technology will soon be used in the actual performances?