Monthly Archives: October 2013

Just stare.

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Marina Abramovic’s pieces have been found to:

‘put the audience in a deeply disturbing and agonising position that invalidated both the established conventions of theatrical performance and generally human responsiveness to a given situation.’ (Fischer-Lichte, 2008, p12)

Upon viewing some interviews with Abramovic, I started to think about how being motionless can make you as the performer vulnerable towards the audience and give them a greater connection to the piece itself. After looking at her piece The artist is present

where she would sit and stare at people for a certain length of time, it is clear that even though she is seated throughout the entire process she is present and completely focused on the person sitting opposite. It seems the performer can do work with just the power of their mind, allowing the audience to develop their own interpretation of something which is more minimalistic. To test this theory, within our lecture we were told to sit opposite someone and look at them for ten minutes (the amount of time each person was allocated in Marina’s performance). For me, my mind was relatively blank within this time. I just sat in the same position and held the gaze of the person sitting opposite me. Once the time was up we were then told to remain in our seats and carry on the experiment for another hour and a half. After the initial shock which had no time to sink in, I remained seated in my initial position and continued to look. Personally, I tried to stay completely still and not let my gaze leave the person opposite. I felt quite selfish throughout the next hour or so, because rather than focusing on the person opposite me it seemed I was running over a to do list within my head.

I had an opportunity to really look at someone and instead I was thinking about things that would affect me personally in the future. It could have been the fact that we were in a room where a group of us were all performing the same task. Although the task seems very straight forward, the results of everyone’s personal reactions were extraordinary. My partner for example began to fall asleep within the task which was in complete contrast to how I had tackled it myself. This idea of doing something that seems a minimalistic task can actually produce more interesting results when it comes to viewing it. This is because if there are no rules each person will tackle what seems a simple experiment completely differently. Looking into invalidating conventions with what is seen as the norm will also be interesting when it comes to producing more experiments in weeks to come.

Works Cited

Fischer-Lichte, E. (2008) The Transformative Power of Performance: A New Aesthetics. London: Routledge.

What is performance?

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In business, sports and sex, ”to perform” is to do something up to a standard – to succeed, to excel. In the arts, ”to perform” is to put on a show, a play, a dance, a concert. In everyday life, ”to perform” is to show off, to go to extremes, to underline an action for those who are watching. (Schechner, 2013, p28)

After reading the second chapter from Performance Studies, we as a group began to question what constitutes a performance. Each performance is different even when it comes down to a daily routine. The text read that a performance exists as an action, and a performer in ordinary life performs said action. Even sex can be viewed as a performance as you are trying to be perceived as the best you can be in front of another person. Performances ultimately exist as actions and interactions within daily routine and relationships. Most naturalistic performances take inspiration from daily life and routine, which can ultimately be more entertaining to view. This could also deem why reality television shows are so popular because we are genuinely intrigued by other people’s lives.

I found particularly interesting the question of why basketball is deemed a sport and ballet art. They both have a competitive element to them as they involve different levels of competition.  However, ballet is competing to perfect certain technique and achieve a role, whereas basketball is mainly about scoring points. Yet they both can be deemed as artistic in their own way and are both performing. What may seem to please one audience, will not please another.

When it comes to Melati Suryodarmo’s piece which I will attach below, she moves standing in butter with a pair of heels on. She is a normal woman trying to compete an impossible task further pushed by the fact she doesn’t have the typical physique of a dancer. Here, she is discovering how much her body can endure. There is nothing more to the performance other than a woman knowing the rough outcome of the piece, but going ahead and tackling the task anyway. She does not give up and continues to commit to the performance which has a constant sense of danger about it, taken to the next level with the use of tribal music.

Melati Suryodarmo “Exergie – Butter Dance” from Kunstbanken Hedmark Kunstsenter on Vimeo.

After viewing this piece as well as a few others, I began to question how we as performers can experiment throughout our process to create a performance that is either aesthetically pleasing, or something audiences won’t be used to seeing as ‘art’. Is it more interesting to perform a piece where you are striving to complete an impossible task, or something more simplistic where the audience can allow themselves to think and just view.

Works Cited

Schechner, R. (2004) Performance Studies: An Introduction. London: Routledge.

 (2012) Melati Suryodarmo “Exergie – Butter Dance. Accessed: 27.10.13.