Olga’s self portrait was the one of the first, if not the first, performances from last week that was not necessarily long but more succinct and to the point. She only needed about  fifteen seconds to show her underlying, true identity: Russian and American. Olga used the desk and had a single paper with the American flag printed on it. With a blue marker, she drew in three blue lines between the red and white of the American flag. This gesture showed that Olga is not confined to one identity but rather two. She is equally proud to say that she is Russian and American.

Her performance could have been long-winded and elaborate, containing elements from Russian and American cultures; however, she boiled it down to something as simple as coloring in three lines in the American flag to show a different flag reminiscent of the Russian flag. Within this short time frame, though, Olga was able to draw attention immediately with the paper of the American flag. I presume everyone in the room wanted to know why she only had one paper. But with the paper and marker, she was able to convey a huge part of herself. Simplicity was key to her performance, and it worked.

The elements Olga utilized were minimal. As stated before, she used only a paper and a marker. However, if we were to look deeper in her performance, we can see that the minimalism was accompanied by the quiet background. She didn’t say anything, and nothing was needed to be said.

Watching the performance in person versus watching through the lens of a video camera wasn’t too different from each other. I was so focused on capturing the self portrait as a whole that I didn’t really see the performance in person. However, when I see the video now–on the computer screen– I see the smaller details of the room and of Olga herself. It’s actually pretty funny seeing how nervous people are in a video compared to real life. I’m sure most of our videos will reveal how nervous we really felt.  Overall, though, the project was fun, interesting, and uncomfortably opening.