Marina Abramović
I know this is a bit late, but I wanted to devote one of my posts to Marina Abramović who we saw in “Picasso Baby” by Jay-Z. I know a lot of people didn’t know she was a famous artist at the time, but I wanted to show everyone her art since each piece is really powerful in my perspective.
One of my favorite pieces by her was actually in 1974 called “Rhythm 0”. In this piece, she made herself the art object for 6 hours (8pm-2am) and put 72 objects on a table that the audience could use on her. The objects ranged from an apple and lipstick to a loaded gun and box of razors. I though this piece was really powerful because she literally risked her life to show how the audience treats an artist. It also has to do a lot with sociopsychology since when one person decided to act violently and didn’t get in trouble for it, everyone else started acting that way.
“What I learned was that… if you leave it up to the audience, they can kill you.” … “I felt really violated: they cut up my clothes, stuck rose thorns in my stomach, one person aimed the gun at my head, and another took it away. It created an aggressive atmosphere. After exactly 6 hours, as planned, I stood up and started walking toward the audience. Everyone ran away, to escape an actual confrontation.”
You should definitely check out her other work, I especially liked “Rhythm 5”, “Breathing In/Breathing Out”, and “The Artist is Present”.
Wow! I find it really interesting that she was willing to put her life on the line for her art, and how she still kept loving it and doing it even after this horrible experience. I’m also amazed by her self control; and how she was able to keep still while someone pointed a gun at her head and stuck thorns in her stomach.
Wow! I find it really interesting that she was willing to put her life on the line for her art, and how she still kept loving it and doing it even after this horrible experience. I’m also amazed by her self control; and how she was able to keep still while someone pointed a gun at her head and stuck thorns in her stomach.
Oh my gosh, this is intense. I give her so much respect for going through such a hellish experience in order to prove her point. I guess thats what it means to be an artist; the devotion these people have for their work is really something. My favorite part of this piece is the very end when she was released from the 6 hour mark everybody ran. Goes to show how some people carry themselves.
Very intense! I had never heard about this… However, it is a bit foolish of her to do this. As history, and even current events show us, most of humankind gravitates toward conflict and violence. If she wanted to prove this, then there are other less dangerous ways to do it. If she wanted to prove that humans are inherently good, then this was naive of her. On the other hand, maybe she wasn’t set out to prove anything and was simply intrigued at the thought. Artists: it’s tough to understand them sometimes!
I totally agree with you, Yahav. This was a very dangerous experiment and to even add a loaded gun to the mix was unnecessary. Perhaps the person who held the gun to her face was stopped, but what would have happened if he/she wasn’t? It really creeps me out that she was willing to go to such lengths to get her point across. There are definitely smarter and better ways.