Performance Art research- Marina Abramović

Marina Abramović is a performance artist who pushes the extreme uses of her body in her work.

Her work has been influential in my research to help me understand how the female body is used in performance art, the objects used and how the public reacted to the performances. Pushing bodies to their limits in extreme ways, as a subversive act.

One of her performances “On Rhythm, 1974”, was a piece that pushed performance art limits. She laid out 72 objects on the table and stood in front of it with instructions on her saying “I’m an object” and let the public do whatever they wanted to her for 6 hours. This was within a gallery space. There was a big risk with this as she had included a pistol gun with one bullet as one of the objects on the table.

The fact that Marina used her body as an object and released control from herself to other people is a key part of performance art, especially in the ’60s and ‘70s when it was at its peak. This has been relevant in my practice through writing my dissertation and also in my final year portfolio. I have found this specific type of art to be very interesting and it relates to many modern-day practitioners’ work such as Isabelle Wenzel who have made the female body still be considered an object in society.

The link to Marina’s performance- https://vimeo.com/71952791

Screenshot of the installation by Marina Abramović

Screenshot of the video performance by Marina Abramović