I want to preface this journal by saying that before this show I wasn't familiar with Marina Abramovic or her work. All I knew is that she was a feminist performance artist who did on-site performances at her exhibitions.
This was the first ever performance artist retrospective I had seen at the MOMA. Marina's first piece, where she invites us to sit and look at her, struck me with an overwhelming presence. Marina is seated in a long billowy target red dress and is staring at the participant with a gaze that is not a smile nor frown. Marina's dress was the piece of color in the white space which grabbed my eyes like a big strawberry in a cold, sterile, room. Before this, I had never seen the artist present in their own installation at a large museum like the MOMA. I couldn't stop thinking about how painful it has to be to sit for 8 hours a day for the whole duration of the show. When that thought struck me, I felt like I was starting to get an understanding of the context for her work. It is about discipline, persistance, power, control, sex, the gaze, etc. Who has the power? Who is looking at who and what does that look mean?
After seeing Abromovic's first piece went upstairs to check out the rest. My engagement was instantly activated when I saw models standing like manequins-- emotionless and some nude. Because the models had such good control and composure over themselves it encouraged me to walk up close to examine if they were "real". I moved through the space and found myself really soaking this all up. I had never seen art like this before in a museum. As art viewers, we are used to seeing nudes in paintings and sculptures, but I have never seen a live nude in a museum. This was the most engaging part of the show for me. These people were real which really added an extra wow factor. I felt like because the models had such a presence I found the videos completely unengaging. I would have really loved to see all of her performances re-performed instead of watching a documentation of her past performances. Then we would have been surrounded by art instead of documentations of past art pieces. The real deal is always way more exciting.
Abramovic's work was so successful to me for a couple of main reasons. I really enjoyed how all the models had emotionless expressions. It was like they were fake, because of how they stared right through you. This lack of expression made each viewer develop an understanding of the art through the specific position he/she was in. By taking that position (standing on the cross, sitting in a chair, etc) and letting the viewer imagine what is meant be this interaction, Abramovic inserts her own ideas, but lets each viewer form their opinion and understanding of their experience.
Ultimately Abramovic's work goes back to the "gaze." When observing how someone looks at another, they develop a stance on how they view certain worldy issues like, race, sex, gender, etc. This kind of art is so important because it helps people reflect and hopefully investigate how they feel and why they feel the way they do. Abramovic's work breaks the binary that we see so much in today's commercial society. Hopefully when people go to see this show they don't shut down and leave because they saw a nude person. I hope that people enter with an open-mind and begin to investigate what the performances means, how they challenge our insecurities and pre-conceived opinions about sex, gender, power, and control.
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