Voina - Mordovian Hour

Last year during ADP I did research with a partner on performance artist group Voina (Russian for war), a group known for its politically charged and often very graphic performances. One of the more lighthearted works they did, Mordovian Hour, is one I didn’t get to look at last year, but still an interesting piece nonetheless. It is also one of Voina’s most important pieces in that it is the first piece they performed as a group (May 1st 2007). The piece itself is a protest of McDonalds workers being required to clock in on International Workers’ Day, a day that celebrates the international labor movement. Voina threw live cats over the counter into the kitchen area, to stop the workers from cooking more food, and “to break up the drudgery of workers’ routine day.” Unfortunately, Voina didn’t document this performance as well as it has others, and a few photos are the only evidence to be found.

Janine Antoni - Touch

Janine Antoni is an installation artist that was born in the Bahamas, which influenced her work. One of Antoni’s most known installations was a video titled “Touch” that she created in 2002 in the Bahamas. The Artist’s body plays a crucial role in this piece because it is a commentary on the human body interacting with the surrounding environment. Using herself as the performer made the piece personal especially since the surroundings, which she was performing at, was the view of the ocean in front of her childhood home. In the performance Antoni walks on a tight rope positioned to be a little bit above the horizon of the water and as she walks across the rope the illusion that she is walking on the very surface of the water for just a brief moment is created. “Touch” explores the subject of balance as well as perception, and human/environmental interaction. Even the title of the piece explains how instantaneous moments are because she is only on the horizon for just the instant that the touch is created. Antoni uses the space of an open coast and confines it to the rectangle of her camera’s view. This rectangle she is performing in creates a stronger piece than if it was a wide angle view or live because then the viewers eye-level would change the perspective of the piece and if the beginning and end of the tightrope were shown it would take away from the surreal illusion. The piece was documented through video and this allows Antoni to make factors like eye-level and composition permanent for the viewer; therefore allowing her to get her message across every time the way she intentioned it.

227- Martin Creed

Martin Creed is a performance artist whose work is very famous and well known. Instead of giving his work names he assigns them number. The piece in particular that interests me is number 227 and it was done in 2000 at the Tate in Britain. His body is not directly involved in the piece but the piece involves him turning the lights on and off in a gallery room in 5 second intervals. . . . . . . . ... The piece was highly criticized but even despite the criticism it won many awards. Viewers were very confused at the simplicity of the piece. It is done in a gallery space that you walk into and nothing is shown but the empty white walls of the space. He then precedes to turn the lights on and off. It is not difficult to document the piece, although it is not documented much because there is a lack of visual aspects to it.

HW Hansen Xiaohan Yang

This is one of the performance that the Silhouettes did during the Minneapolis auditions in America's Got Talent (AGT), season 6. This performance is performed in June 8th, 2011. It is a shadow performance base on audio, screen, light, and time. In my opinion, it is a story that a girl grow up and get married, and then become to be one of the member of the family. The group move into the show from left and right to the center to make a focus point. Also the performance is following the audio, people move and dance in the planning positions.
This piece is visually performed not only just in black and white, also a lot of movements in it. Also it defined what art is, including the space and dancing moves. The overlap of people's body is the key of this piece. Additionally, the audio is nicely fit into the story that the dance is trying to communicate to audience. I would be really interested in the shadow art, and doing it with three partners in class. It is visual art and also have a lot of movements in it. Music, dance and compositional design mix together will be amazing!

The following link is another piece they performed in America's Got Talent:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NezzDzIV9_E&feature=related

Kate Gilmore

"When women use their own bodies in their art work, they are using themselves: asignificant psychological factor converts these bodies or faces from object to subject."

--Lucy Lippard (Weil, 1).

            Kate Gilmore is a video performance artist who known for her extreme expressions of defiance, and exploring the themes of feminism, artistic struggle, and desperation is her work. In the words of Harry Weil, “Kate Gilmore revitalizes and critiques the complex relationship of women and their 

reception within the art establishment” (Weil, 1).  In her piece “Standing Here” performed in 2010, Kate wiggles her way in to the bottom of a 12-foot column. In order to get out of the tight claustrophobic space, she is forced to kick and punch holes in the wall to create places to put her hands and feet in order to climb out of the column. In this and all of her performances, her body is used to represent the way women defeat the conflict and struggles of every day life.

            According to Richard, There is always some level of physical risk involved (1), and this is what makes her work so intriguing. Also, the small twist that she adds to these risky and sometimes messy performances is the fact that she always dressed as stylish as possible. What woman fights her battles without high heels on?  Space is a large factor as well. In Kate’s performances, especially “Standing Here”, the space is used to constrict her. While making Kate feel trapped, the space forces her to find a way to escape, and also makes the viewer very uncomfortable and anxious. Kate Gilmore is a daring and intriguing performance artist who always represents women in a powerful but still feminine way.

Works Cited

Weil, Harry J. "Old Themes, New Variations: The Work of Kate Gilmore." Afterimage39.3 (2011): n. pag. Print.

Richard, Frances. "Kate Gilmore: Smith-Stewart." Artforum International 1 Feb. 2009: n. pag. Print.

Link to video:

http://www.kategilmore.com/stills/standinghere-clip.mov

            

Homework 3 Bell

Allison Bell Heidi Kumano TMP 3 November 12, 2012 Cotemporary Chinese artist Liu Bolin is often referred to as the “invisible man”. Ironically, being the invisible man, is what has made him known around the world. His performance art piece that I chose to research is titled, Hiding in the City. Inspired from a profound experience when he watched helplessly as police officers demolished the village where he worked and lived, produced the first photo of the series, of Liu standing in front of his destroyed studio, his clothes and face painted so that he blends into the broken and shattered facade. Beginning in 2005, he is expanding and perfecting this series to this day. Camouflaging himself into hundreds of scenes around the world from vermilion gates of the Forbidden City, supermarket aisles, Olympic propaganda billboards, the lagoons of Venice, Ground Zero, the Wall Street bull to simple beautiful street graffiti (Parsons). Hiding in the City, consists of photographs of himself completely camouflaged. He uses his body as a canvas, painting himself all over his face and clothing, head to toe. His works combine painting, installation, sculpture and photography into a repeated visual pattern extremely unique. Every individual image resonates with a different meaning; repression, power, suffering, and luxury. Often he’s impossible to detect at a first glance, but he aims to be ever so off center. “When I move a bit, it lets people look and think about the art,” he says. “I don’t want to fade into the larger scene (Levin). Levin, Dan. "Chinese Artist Liu Bolin: The Internet’s Invisible Man." Newsweek Magazine. 15 2012: 1-3. Print. Parsons, Michael. "The International Journal of Arts Education ." International Journal of Arts Education . 1.1 (2010): 10. Print.

Wafaa Bilal

               After doing some research Wafaa Bilal caught my eye as a performance artist because he takes it to a whole new level. He makes the viewer question the world they live in and the actions, like war, that have become a part of our culture. One piece that I found really interesting was called “…and Counting” which was completed in 2010. The 24-hour performance was Bilal receiving a series of tattoos and “carvings” on his back along with a borderless map tattoo of Iraq. The 5,000 red “carvings” were representing the American causalities in the Iraq war and the 10,000 tattooed dots can only be seen in ultra violet light and represent the “unidentified and forgotten Iraq victims.” So he used his body as a way to help show the pain that he had to deal with when his brother was killed in Iraq by a missile. “Bilal feels the pain of both American and Iraqi families who’ve lost loved ones in the war, but the deaths of Iraqis like his brother are largely invisible to the American public.”
              He also used his body in a piece called “3rdi” where he had a live-feed camera surgically mounted into the back of his head to comment on the surveillance that happens in America these days. In another piece called “Domestic Tension” he lived in a gallery space for a month and people were able to observe him from a webcam and shoot him with paint balls. He was exploring the concept of war, the Iraq war in particular, and political themes in today’s society. He tries to mimic the pain and suffering of war through his pieces. His body is the main part of all of his pieces, but he also puts himself in confined spaces, like the gallery, to show how he is limited due to the government and because of his racial background and the implications surrounding it. Since his work is usually pain being inflicted upon himself, his pieces are usually documented with photographs and sometimes videos to show the events themselves, like getting tattooed. Watching his work is sometimes hard to watch because imagine getting hit/shot at by 60,000 paint balls. The viewers can imagine the pain he is in and therefore maybe begin to imagine the pain that surround war and all of the causalities associated with fighting one another.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcyquvDEe0o

Bilal, Wafaa, and Kari Lydersen. Shoot an Iraqi: Art, Life And Resistance Under the Gun. San Francisco, CA: City Lights, 2008.

Goldberg, RoseLee. Performance Art: From Futurism to the Present. Rev. ed. London: Thames & Hudson, 2001.