Performance vs Awareness

I have been avoiding doing performances lately and i tried to understand why that is. I came to the conclusion that performance sounds very intimidating because you assume there will be an audience which will focus on you and your performance as you are part of the piece. A performance that requires attention. So after a while i kept thinking why cant the performance change to awareness where i don't have to have people look at me but requires for them just to be aware of the performance which might be quite subtle. A performance which requires for people to notice it and look at it for some time to realize that what i am doing is a piece of work. 

Another worry that i have with performance is that i would be part of the art piece and there may be nothing solid to present, but just use my own body to show the performance. That idea of the work being present and performed but not physically seen or touched is at the same time very interesting and scary to me. Work that is present in the moment and needs to be seen in the moment because it can disappear or change. For example the performance piece outside with glow in the dark chalks on pavements is a piece of work that needs to be seen in that particular time as it isn't permanent and can be easily missed. The video for me is a way of documenting the actual performance but isn't the work in itself. I really like interactions that are not permanent but highlight the space or make people aware of their surroundings.

Link to my first tryout performance with chalks

Although the chalk wasn't as bright as i wanted it to be i still like the luminosity of it. I think it goes well with the place around. The bright city lights which suddenly become even more noticeable to me. I became more aware of the city view from the balcony after making this performance as i could see the colors of the chalk in the city view. Also i think working in a grid and the space worked very well for me as i used the grid as my guideline although adding my own expression to the work.

Me being the center point of the work

Looking back at last year with the piece of work that i have made on the studio floor i realize that it was in some sense a performance. I worked best when people were around me rather than when i was by myself. The sense of presence of other people was very important to me and i realize it now and maybe that is why i am drawn to performance and awareness. I produce work best when people are aware of it. I think i feel supported that way and it encourages for me to produce more work.

~Ev

Bruce Nauman

Video: Bruce Nauman's 'Walking in an Exaggerated Manner Around the Perimeter of a Square' (1967-68)

While talking to Rory about the performance i thought of doing in the Metal at the start which consisted of me walking the perimeter of the square in the middle of the room, he has introduced me to this artist who has made a similar piece. However there are some differences between us. Bruce Nauman made the grid that he followed using masking tape, however my idea was to interact with the shape found in the building. Working with the history of the lines and marks present. 

Similar to Bruce Nauman i am interested in circularity and repetition of movement as well as the body awareness. Nauman is more concerned with the movements and tension made by the movements, compared to what i am trying to show. I am more concerned with highlighting the lines present, being the highlighter that makes the lines/marks noticeable by me interacting with them using movement in an exploratory manner. A subtle performance which requires the audience to be aware of it as it can be easily missed. 

" Error, fatigue, etc. all become factors, and they serve to build suspense, adding an internal logic to the configuration of the film. Thus, the action of walking in an exaggerated manner gains a heightened sense of importance as it is the only anchor, the only sense of motion within the work."  http://www.notcoming.com/reviews/walkingsquare/ 

In a way i think Naumans performance is more concerned with the movement and circularity rather than with the square itself compared to mine, where i place a lot of importance into it and just use my body to highlight it. In a way Naumans using the square as a guideline and i work with the square found. For Nauman the art is in the process and not the object.

"Nauman has stated that the proper way of exhibiting this film is to endlessly loop it, again drawing back to his predilection for the concepts of circularity and repetition. "  http://www.notcoming.com/reviews/walkingsquare/ 

Compared to Nauman for me the performance is the actual work and not the video of it. I consider the video as a way of documenting the piece to look at it myself. A way of documenting and looking at myself from the others point of view. The piece itself is the performance for people to either notice it or not.

My performance link 



~Ev

Cornelia Parker + Metal

I have heard about Cornelia Parker before but i didn't see her as an artist that linked to my work at the time, but now after a year i come back to her and see similarities that i have maybe ignored but they were there. 

Cornelia Parker is an installation/ sculpture artist and her work has been described as "linked to the fragility of human experience". There is a piece of work that really links to the piece i am considering making for the Metal show. It is called Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View (1991, London, Tate) This piece is a restored three-dimensional volume of a garden shed which has been exploded on purpose by the British army at the request of Cornelia Parker. What she did with the surviving fragments of the shed for me is quite genius. She suspended the fragments from the ceiling with a single bulb in the middle which cast shadows on the gallery walls giving a dramatic effect. Invading the gallery space with the shadows which gave a sense of magnitude of the bombing, which worked not only with the space but with the people entering it. Cornelia Parker worked not only with the altered scale and substance of things but also with the meaning conveyed by found objects.

Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View (1991, London, Tate) 

This piece in my opinion links in with the work i am considering doing for the Metal gallery. I am thinking of "giving life" to the marks and splashes found in the building by using their shape and changing it to create something else, like "rebirth of marks" in the building. Each mark has a history which we don't know, have their own maker which i find very interesting. I want to add importance to them because for me they look abandoned and ignored. When i look at the mark i cannot help but think about how it was made, what year, the marks are like a by product of other people experiences. For me to engage with them is like giving them another chance to live and being noticed. So i am thinking of tracing marks i find in the building and laser-cutting them onto plastic to then heat and change their flat shape into natural forms. Natural forms for me symbolize growth and life and the cycle of life, so by using the information given by marks/tracings i want to give life to them though giving them a natural shape and uniting them together to form one.

~Ev

Metal - Edge Hill

Went to Metal which turned out to be in an old abandoned train station which i didn't expect. It was so arty inside with the mixture of old and new in the building. As a group we have an opportunity to show in the space, so we visited to see what kind of place it is and what kind of work is possible to make for the space. The theme of the project is - recycled boxes. Doesn't sound fun but i will come up with something fun and what suits me and my interests. It can be an actual box i can work with or take an idea of the box and what it means. 

While exploring the space i noticed a painted square in the middle of the room which i intuitively wanted to work with. Inside that square there were marks that i loved. But this time its not the marks that stood out to me most but my reaction to the square itself. I started walking around the perimeter of the square, just going in circle inside the square. I imagined what it would feel like to make a performance just consisting of me walking inside the square, being caged in, having a boundary, like i am in a box. Love these moments! I am thinking of also experimenting with the marks i find. I can trace them and laser-cut the shapes on plastic and maybe make them sculptural. Use the information from the space to form something else. There are a lot of things i can experiment with. I am drawn to this square i think because it gives me a boundary to work with.