Today , i tried my hand at something that i was looking forward to , since a long while know , the art of performance . Performance art is the act of using the body to mediate a voice . The sole focus remains on the actions exhibited by the performer.
In a more formal manner it is described as pieces of art that are presented to an audience that may or may not be random and orchestrated that involve a certain regard to space and medium. It is a versatile image of conceptual thinking brought into action through active participation . It gives great freedom to it's performers to freely exhibit the notion of expression without setting any boundaries. The very fact of having the audience so close and mostly even to be a part of the art piece in the making , becoming a part of process themselves, intrigues me greatly .
Nearly two years ago i had witnessed performance art through the film 'The Artist is Present' which focuses mainly on Marina Abramovic's performance at MoMA , of sitting opposite people from the audience and just maintaining an eye contact , observing silence. She didi this every single day for three months, from March-May of 2010 at MoMA , Manhattan,NY. The film i saw also featured some of her earlier works which exposed me to revolutionary names in performance art such as Vito Acconci , Joseph Beuy, Bruce Nauman,Yoko Ono and Valie Export.
Coming back to the art piece as performed by my partner(Anahita Ganjoo) and me , was a great experience in observing control on emotions and body movements as we dealt with the audience that flocked. We worked with post it's and a pen , which we held , as we sat facing each other , wearing a post it on our foreheads asking people to write their expectations from us on the paper and sticking it , anywhere on our bodies . As the crowd grew more intrigued , it started to make us move and speak of what we were up to , getting no response , they found it as a great platform to write anything they wished for without apprehension. After the pad of post it's got over we got up and without reading the written expectations, crumpled them and stuffed it in our mouth , chewing and then spitting it out.
This performance , focused on the claustrophobic sensation of expectations of the society, from people that you don't actually know . This was our way of conquering that sensation.
When i got up , from my performance i felt a certain kind of contentment that was very different from when id finish a piece of writing or painting.
In a more formal manner it is described as pieces of art that are presented to an audience that may or may not be random and orchestrated that involve a certain regard to space and medium. It is a versatile image of conceptual thinking brought into action through active participation . It gives great freedom to it's performers to freely exhibit the notion of expression without setting any boundaries. The very fact of having the audience so close and mostly even to be a part of the art piece in the making , becoming a part of process themselves, intrigues me greatly .
Nearly two years ago i had witnessed performance art through the film 'The Artist is Present' which focuses mainly on Marina Abramovic's performance at MoMA , of sitting opposite people from the audience and just maintaining an eye contact , observing silence. She didi this every single day for three months, from March-May of 2010 at MoMA , Manhattan,NY. The film i saw also featured some of her earlier works which exposed me to revolutionary names in performance art such as Vito Acconci , Joseph Beuy, Bruce Nauman,Yoko Ono and Valie Export.
Coming back to the art piece as performed by my partner(Anahita Ganjoo) and me , was a great experience in observing control on emotions and body movements as we dealt with the audience that flocked. We worked with post it's and a pen , which we held , as we sat facing each other , wearing a post it on our foreheads asking people to write their expectations from us on the paper and sticking it , anywhere on our bodies . As the crowd grew more intrigued , it started to make us move and speak of what we were up to , getting no response , they found it as a great platform to write anything they wished for without apprehension. After the pad of post it's got over we got up and without reading the written expectations, crumpled them and stuffed it in our mouth , chewing and then spitting it out.
This performance , focused on the claustrophobic sensation of expectations of the society, from people that you don't actually know . This was our way of conquering that sensation.
When i got up , from my performance i felt a certain kind of contentment that was very different from when id finish a piece of writing or painting.