Why Is Performance Art Important to Me?
Ricky Young
WR 115
Essay 2
Why is Performance Art important to me?
How can I begin to write a paper about something I’ve been “passionate” about for a little less then a year? I use to dislike performance art with a passion. I didn’t use to like it because as a visual artist I couldn’t understand the purpose of art with no object. Art that essentially left nothing behind, but confusion. How could something be ‘art’ if it’s purely an action with no tangible result? Art to me had always been object centric.
Art is a vessel that is used to portray or convey ides or images conceived by each individual artist. Some Artists pick up a paintbrush or a chisel and hammer, while others use words as their medium. Each artist is driven to create by their own unique view of the world and their view of life in general. Some simply try to show what they see while others tell a story. Some attempt to shift the world by pointing out flaws and faults in society while others share their visions of Utopia. In performance art the medium is memory. Through using their bodies as vessels performance artists leave behind images and impressions on a most basic human level.
The first time I came across Marina Abramovic’s work I didn’t pay much attention because of my dislike of performance art. I kind of just wrote her of as an attention starved narcissist. I can’t remember when I came across Marina Abramovic’s work again, but I read a lot of art news. She had recently finished “The Artist is Present,” where she sat motionless for 700 hours over the course of three months. She was seated at a plain wood table and invited members of the public to sit across from her one at a time. When I first read about “The Artist is Present” the premise of the piece sounded absurdly stupid to me. What could sitting motionless for 3 months prove or accomplish? I tried to ignore it, but I found I kept thinking about this strange woman and her desire to simply be present. This time
WR 115
Essay 2
Why is Performance Art important to me?
How can I begin to write a paper about something I’ve been “passionate” about for a little less then a year? I use to dislike performance art with a passion. I didn’t use to like it because as a visual artist I couldn’t understand the purpose of art with no object. Art that essentially left nothing behind, but confusion. How could something be ‘art’ if it’s purely an action with no tangible result? Art to me had always been object centric.
Art is a vessel that is used to portray or convey ides or images conceived by each individual artist. Some Artists pick up a paintbrush or a chisel and hammer, while others use words as their medium. Each artist is driven to create by their own unique view of the world and their view of life in general. Some simply try to show what they see while others tell a story. Some attempt to shift the world by pointing out flaws and faults in society while others share their visions of Utopia. In performance art the medium is memory. Through using their bodies as vessels performance artists leave behind images and impressions on a most basic human level.
The first time I came across Marina Abramovic’s work I didn’t pay much attention because of my dislike of performance art. I kind of just wrote her of as an attention starved narcissist. I can’t remember when I came across Marina Abramovic’s work again, but I read a lot of art news. She had recently finished “The Artist is Present,” where she sat motionless for 700 hours over the course of three months. She was seated at a plain wood table and invited members of the public to sit across from her one at a time. When I first read about “The Artist is Present” the premise of the piece sounded absurdly stupid to me. What could sitting motionless for 3 months prove or accomplish? I tried to ignore it, but I found I kept thinking about this strange woman and her desire to simply be present. This time