Monday, November 26, 2012
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Monday, November 12, 2012
Homework #3 - Carolee Schneemann
http://www.cepagallery.org/exhibitions/workspace/schneemann.html
^link to a gallery showing the 36 images
Active across several decades, Carolee Schneemann is a multidisciplinary artist interested in the interactions between body, gender, and sexuality. A piece that caught my eye in particular is her piece Eyey Body: 36 Transformative Actions, created in 1963. In this piece, Carol uses her body not only as a mode to construct the scenes, but also as part of the scenery. Her naked body is a canvas for a variety of markings and even a snake, emphasizing her body as "an integral material" (1) of the work. As Irvin Sandler noted, her work aims "to free human sexuality" (2). And this work most definitely explores sexuality and its ability to be more than erotic. Carolee shows the viewer through this piece that the body is not simply sensuous or desirable. It is also a natural part of any landscape where humanity has been.
Documented on 35mm film, the images were shot by the Icelandic photographer Erro. Although there is not a video of this performance, it can viewed through the thirty-six successive shots taken by Erro as Carolee painted herself literally, and figuratively into the environment surrounding her. By exploring nudity as a means for expression, and capturing her interactions with the scenes she set up around herself, Carol has integrated her body with the set in a way both unsettling and erotic. Unsettling because it has not been done before in that way, and erotic because it is done in that way.
1. quote by Carolee Schneemann
2. article by Irvin Sandler for The Brooklyn Rail
^link to a gallery showing the 36 images
Active across several decades, Carolee Schneemann is a multidisciplinary artist interested in the interactions between body, gender, and sexuality. A piece that caught my eye in particular is her piece Eyey Body: 36 Transformative Actions, created in 1963. In this piece, Carol uses her body not only as a mode to construct the scenes, but also as part of the scenery. Her naked body is a canvas for a variety of markings and even a snake, emphasizing her body as "an integral material" (1) of the work. As Irvin Sandler noted, her work aims "to free human sexuality" (2). And this work most definitely explores sexuality and its ability to be more than erotic. Carolee shows the viewer through this piece that the body is not simply sensuous or desirable. It is also a natural part of any landscape where humanity has been.
Documented on 35mm film, the images were shot by the Icelandic photographer Erro. Although there is not a video of this performance, it can viewed through the thirty-six successive shots taken by Erro as Carolee painted herself literally, and figuratively into the environment surrounding her. By exploring nudity as a means for expression, and capturing her interactions with the scenes she set up around herself, Carol has integrated her body with the set in a way both unsettling and erotic. Unsettling because it has not been done before in that way, and erotic because it is done in that way.
1. quote by Carolee Schneemann
2. article by Irvin Sandler for The Brooklyn Rail
Blue Man Group!
My favorite performance artist group, the Blue Man Group is
an organization founded by Chris Wink, Matt Goldman, and Phil Stanton.
Production of theatrical shows and concerts with experimental music and diverse
media.
The piece I chose is I Feel Love, featured by Jay Leno, or Venus Hum as an artist name. The performances of the Blue Man Group are usually comprised of drums made out of any materials, and in this particular piece the singer appears with the blue men and adds some tunes and lyrics to the performance. This piece has been performed many different times, slightly restyled each time. The performance artists, or the Blue Men, act or play music in excited manners, often in comic ways. The types of instruments the Blue Man Group plays are unlimited and unique, ranging from tiny bells to giant cluster of intestine-like pipes called “monster tubulum.”
They thoroughly fill the stage or the space of their performance by constantly moving around and acting, and they do not fear involving a variety of materials or media in their performance, providing the audience with surprise and excitement. There are videos of their performance all over the place, and I actually went to one of their concerts few years ago. The most unique feature of their performance is that they always incorporate the audience into their performance, intensifying the audience’s excitement and an opportunity of extraordinary experiences.
The piece I chose is I Feel Love, featured by Jay Leno, or Venus Hum as an artist name. The performances of the Blue Man Group are usually comprised of drums made out of any materials, and in this particular piece the singer appears with the blue men and adds some tunes and lyrics to the performance. This piece has been performed many different times, slightly restyled each time. The performance artists, or the Blue Men, act or play music in excited manners, often in comic ways. The types of instruments the Blue Man Group plays are unlimited and unique, ranging from tiny bells to giant cluster of intestine-like pipes called “monster tubulum.”
They thoroughly fill the stage or the space of their performance by constantly moving around and acting, and they do not fear involving a variety of materials or media in their performance, providing the audience with surprise and excitement. There are videos of their performance all over the place, and I actually went to one of their concerts few years ago. The most unique feature of their performance is that they always incorporate the audience into their performance, intensifying the audience’s excitement and an opportunity of extraordinary experiences.
Carol Schneemann, Up to and Including Her Limits, 1974
Carol Schneeman is an American performance artist who had
created many mixed media art during the 1970s and 1980s. One of her performance
art pieces, Up to and Including Her
Limits was performed at the University Art Museum in Berkeley in 1974. This
event was a combination of performance, installation and video, which she began
when the museum opened and ended when it closed. She hung naked from a swing,
perpetually moving in space and drew and wrote on paper that she had installed
on the floor and the wall around her.
She saw her marks as hypnotic tracking devices and an
automatic writing or drawing that interpret her sensations and thoughts into
words and images. She connected her artistic and physical processes in time to
feelings, sensations and need that she could also show it to the public. She
was interested in finding a way to make a monumental drawing with her body. Also,
she was reacting to monumental and male dominated history of abstract
expressionism and action painting. The video is recording of the artist
actually making this drawing.
Perry, Gillian, and Paul Wood. Themes in Contemporary Art. New Haven: Yale UP in Association with the Open University, 2004. Print.
Schneemann, Carolee. Carolee Schneemann. [New York?]: Max Hutchinson Gallery, 1982. Print.
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