The exhibit of performance artist, Marina Abramovic, at Museum of Modern Art is not only amazing for the incredible amount of work presented but also for the fact that the artist is there, live, creating a piece. Abramovic is no longer in the same physical shape she was when she began performing and the question of how to preserve a body of work when the artist can no longer perform them is approaching quickly. Her work has been sold as a collection to MOMA and they have found the solution. They have dancers re-creating her performance works under her direction. The majority of them are dancers and perform the pieces as she and her partner, Uly, did, nude. What seems almost embarassingly comical on initial inspection is actually complex, fascinating, and at times, violent.
Abramovic has led an amazing life. Of Yugoslavian descent, her father was a decorated World War 2 hero and her uncle declared a saint by the church after his death. She experienced an productive period of collaboration with a German artist, Uly, doing many performance pieces together. Their relationship culminated in a piece in which they each start walking from opposite ends of the Great Wall of China with the plan to marry once they met. Unfortunately, by the time they overcame the red tape their relationship had deteriorated and their final meeting signified the end of their relationship and collaborations. Video of this culmination is projected onto a far wall.
Many of her earlier works have typed directions for each performance including the specific time each step takes displayed alongside a photo of her performing the work. The methodical way each piece was rehearsed, performed and notated is more reminiscent of a bookkeeper than an artist. Some of the most riveting consist of sound and video; including one piece where she screamed, danced, and recited random words till she passed out from physical exhaustion. All three performances are displayed on a wall alongside each other in a violent, disturbing, but riveting vision.
Her performance pieces are recreated by trained dancers. Since most of them perform nude it questions many of our preconceived ideas about how we feel about the vulnerability of nudity. In one piece a man and a woman flank a doorway facing each other creating a narrow opening that the viewer must position themselves through, brushing past their exposed bodies. How do people react to the nudity? To being forced to have physical contact with it? In addition it makes one question how nudity appears in public locations. We also observed the performers in the midst of changing for breaks in a piece in which a naked woman sits precariously on a bike seat suspended 20' up on a wall, arms and legs splayed out without any support. The slow, gracious way in which their arms and legs lowered, carefully climbing down a ladder to their replacement holding a long white lab coat for covering up, it was almost as if it was part of the piece.
The Artist is Present is the piece she performs live, everyday during museum hours. She sits in a chair at an empty table facing an empty chair and is surrounded by a large taped off perimeter on the floor. Museum goers are invited to come and quietly sit with her for as long as they like, not interacting on any verbal or physical level other than sitting still. I heard another student in our class, talking about her and her work, say it was about physical endurance. But I beg to differ, I feel that her work is really a physical representation of the challenge of the mind. It is the mental flexibility that allows her to remain physically still and still travel, without a sound, without moving. The gowns she wears are specially made to even allow her to defecate while sitting on display. That control of mind over body is only on the surface about endurance, I think its more about the ability to set your mind free.
I thoroughly enjoyed this exhibit and truly commend MOMA for putting on a display of the type of work one goes to a museum of 'Modern' art for. Let's face it, pretty pictures are on the wall everywhere. But to be able to see this type of work, and the artist herself, live, is truly a wonderful, mind opening experience.
No comments:
Post a Comment