The focus of our sessions in Week Three, both in sessions 3.1 and 3.2, was on our reactions to particular practitioners. The first practitioner we were presented with was Marina Abramovic, notably her works The Artist is Present (2010), Rhythm 0 (1974) and Lovers (1988). Lovers, as shown in the photo below, involved Marina and her partner Ulay walking from opposite ends of the Great Wall of China, only to meet in the middle where they would end their relationship. The most notable reaction to the performance was the length of time it took for her and Ulay to achieve permission to use the Wall in the performance. It took Abramovic EIGHT years to achieve the permission to use the wall to end their relationship, which could be argued to either be an act of insanity or a work of genius. Her dedication to the art opened the discussion of dedication to performance, as she has often stated, particularly in her TEDx talk, that “blood can act as a performance material, your body is the vehicle” (Tedx, 2018).
Abramovic states that performance “is a mental and physical construction, performed with an audience in a specific time and space” (Abramovic, 2018). The idea of performance being a ‘specific time and space’ was particularly intriguing for me. One of my initial performance ideas is to discuss and use imagery from The Illuminati and the New World Order, poking fun at the way in which they are depicted in popular culture. Creating a specific ‘world’ where I have a specific time and space for the audience could be an effective way of create the tone I want for my final performance product. I had the idea of using an installation style for my performance, as the main purposes of installations is to “act as an interruption to the everyday place-world of the […] site and the associated habitus” (Hunter, 2012, 261) encouraging spectators to “re-assess their surroundings and experience them in an extra-daily manner (Hunter, 2012, 261). Owing to the prevalence of the Illuminati in popular culture, I feel that it would be interesting to explore reactions and interpretations of their presence in the media on regular individuals through an installation-based performance. To do this, I would focus on creating an atmospheric performance space/design to set a somewhat serious tonality to begin with, which would be interrupted by a comedic analysis of pop culture and media symbolism. Despite my preliminary research, I still believe there is much research to be done into installation work and how to create mood and atmosphere appropriate to my performance idea.
In session 3.2, we were introduced to the artist Karen Finley, an artist who discusses female identity and sexuality, often in a rather explicit manner. Her depiction of hysteria through poetry particularly resonated with me, as it showed a way to convey emotion and passion about a subject with problematic connotations and histories in a hard-hitting manner. Hysteria as a term is particular problematic, as it was “originally believed that hysteria and hysterical symptoms were caused by a defect in the womb, and thus, only women could become hysterical” (Sine, 2015). Work which tackles issues head-on in an interesting manner is particular intriguing, as it leaves little room for the theatrical and instead places focus on being informative. The informative nature of her performance is the area I wish to explore further, as the representation of the Illuminati, like hysteria, is convoluted and misunderstood by the mass media and audience. Through a depiction of comedy, I aim to poke fun at the representation of the Illuminati and the idea of conspiracy in popular culture, to then reiterate the misinformation and ‘stretched truths’ surrounding them and their iconography.
WANT: To begin creating the basis of a performance around my initial idea, whilst further researching how to create an ‘installation’ based performance.
LEARNT: 1) About installations and the beginnings of creating tone through set design.
2) The importance of set, timing and tonality in performance.
EXPERIENCE: Overall my experience with the work this week has been very informing, allowing me to find a precedent for my work and find an overarching idea to experiment with.
Works Cited
Hunter, V. (2012) ‘Moving Sites’: Transformation and Re-location in Site-specific Dance Performance. Contemporary Theatre Review. 22(2) 261.
Sine, S. (2015) On the sexist etimology of “hysteria,” and what academia did about it. Medium. Available at: https://medium.com/@peacelovetrig/on-the-sexist-etimology-of-hysteria-and-what-academia-did-about-it-ef98815ddb6c [Accessed 22nd February 2018].