Performance Art Video

This was by far my favorite project we have done in this class. At the beginning of the semester when I first saw the performance art project, I was a little nervous because I had never even thought of doing something like that. I'm usually a very outgoing person and don't really have a shy bone in my body. But when it came down to being forced to actually go into public and do something outrageous, I got anxious. However, after doing my performance, I felt so relieved and so good that I had accomplished something that I was slightly scared of. 

I decided to do my project while I was at home in Chicago for Thanksgiving break. The concept of my performance was to test the culture of the people in the city of Chicago and see how they would react when an "outsider" is dressed in complete opposite apparel and asking a ridiculous question: "Excuse me, can you tell me where the beach is?" It is winter time in Chicago and is very, very cold out so I obviously got some very interesting responses. I was very pleasantly surprised, however, with how many nice people I encountered that ACTUALLY gave me direction to the beach even though it was clearly way too cold to be attending a beach. I was dressed in swim trunks, a tank top, and had a towel around my neck and sunglasses on my face. Safe to say, I was freezing. But as I kept moving through the city and the adrenaline kicked in, I really did not pay attention to the cold too much.

I was slightly frustrated with how my clips turned out because the friend I asked to record decided to take her own artistic freedom in what she was recording. I asked her to make sure she was recording me talking to the people and getting their reactions, but she was more focused on getting cool shots of the city and of my feet...She was not paying attention to my actual performance as much as she was paying attention to getting good footage for herself.  I know the video maximum was 3 minutes, but mine ended up being 4.5 minutes due to the footage that she got. In order to really show what I was doing and show enough reactions, I had to really pick through and edit the clips I used. If I would have stuck to the 3 minute time restriction, I don't believe my final video would have showed enough of what I was doing and really capture the extent of the reactions. I talked to so many more people than what is shown in the video, but my recorder didn't get half of them.

Overall, I really loved this performance. It pushed me out of my comfort zone and I had so much fun doing it. Seeing how much fun people also had looking at me and talking to me made it all worth it as well. I could tell that many people were not very amused, but so many people were laughing and thought I was crazy..It's not every day someone in Chicago dresses for the beach in 30 degree weather.

One of my favorite performance artists is Marina Abramović. All of her work is so emotionally intense and moving that she is so captivating to watch. Her piece "Rhythm 0" in which she let strangers come and freely use any of the 72 objects in the room on her. She often puts herself in very uncomfortable and dangerous situations, leaving her vulnerable and subject to any type of abuse. Her pieces inspire me, especially with my photography, to be more vulnerable and really let myself go within my art. She doesn't use technology too much with her art mainly because she does all the performance herself without any technological assistance.

Another one of my favorite performance artists, even though very modern, is Beyonce. Like Abramović, her work is very emotional and contains a very strong message about society and humanity as we see it today. Her performance of her visual album "Lemonade" is one of the most well known performances she has done. She honors black culture and relays important messages about equality and love. Beyonce, however, uses a lot of technology within her art since she performs in such modern times. She is fearless, like Abramović, and really tries to connect to her audience.

My last favorite performance artist has to be Yoko Ono with her performance Cut Piece (1964). Like the other two, Ono left herself very vulnerable and at risk of danger and humiliation when she kneeled on stage with a pair of scissors and invited the audience to come up and cut pieces of her clothing off, however they liked. This was so powerful in terms of showing our society and our ideas on culture, identity, and gender norms. It was a very powerful performance that didn't use any type of technology and still managed to to relay an amazing message about art perception and society.

"What is to be done?" - Push the boundaries even further. With time continuously moving forward and society continuing to grow, performance artists need to dig deeper into our current social issues and push people way past their comfort zones to show what is real and raw. I'm not saying that the other artists weren't producing raw reactions, but I would like to see what this upcoming generation, including my own, can produce in regards to where our society is now and where it is moving.