Marina Abramovic is a master of performance art. Last Friday I went to see the much publicised exhibition currently showing at the Royal Academy of Arts. It is breathtaking.
The gallery states that it “is an overview of her practice. It’s organised thematically to highlight some of her enduring interests – the importance of public participation, pushing the limits of the body, drawing energy from nature and developing meaning through ritual.”
Her early solo performance, Rhythm 10, 1973 is based on a Russian drinking game. She used a white piece of paper, a tape recorder and twenty different sized knives. She stabs between her fingers, switching the knife for another every time she cut herself.
A year later she takes this to the next level in her six hour performance, Rhythm 0. In this performance she lays out various objects on a table in front of her. It looked to me like the empty table from The Last Supper when I saw it.
Some of the objects laid out are associated with pleasure including perfume, roses, a candle, a mirror, a lipstick.
Others administer pain including scissors, chains, an axe, a saw, sharp knives and a loaded gun. She instructs her audience to use them “on me as desired”, asserting that she is taking “full responsibility”.
At first her audience were tentative but as time went on they turned violent, using the objects to cut into her skin, rip her clothes, stick a knife between her legs and attached a piece of paper to her body that read “vile”.
She stands there alone, her eyes filling with tears but the "audience" don’t stop. This was all photographed during the “performance” and it is these photographs along with the objects laid out that we see at the exhibition. The trauma of the experience turned a section of the artist's hair white.
I went to the exhibition alone and it was somewhat disturbing to overhear other gallery goers discuss which objects they would have used on her.
Katy Hessel, author of the The Story of Art without men, comments “It’s a monument to Abramovic’s fearlessness and resilience, the way she tested her mental and physical thresholds to extremes … and it makes us think about the hostility women still face: the constant threat of violence and danger and the abuse of our bodies by the powerful…. Using her body as the medium, Abramovic shows just how close art can get to life.” Katy Hessel asks us to consider the Metropolitan police and the fact that there are 143 officers currently under investigation for domestic abuse, of whom 42 are still working.
As relevant now as it was then I say.
You cannot deny the artistry in Five stages of Maya Dance. Above is the image as you view it straight on but just look at the video below to see how it is in fact a three dimensional structure.
The commentary states that "In these artworks Abramovic 'performed to camera' the extremes of human expression. These photographs were carved in negative relief on alabaster slabs, turning them into performative sculptural objects that memorialise the artist's performance yet transform into rough stone when approached."
In another room in the gallery a performance artist lies beneath a skeleton, which rises and falls with their breath. The artwork was inspired by an exercise practised by Tibetan Buddhist monks, which involves sleeping alongside the dead as a means of conquering our fear of dying.
There has been much in the media of the opportunity exhibition goers are given to squeeze through between two naked performance artists but I was more struck by the room dedicated to exploring portals.
The portal recreation in the centre of the room is astonishingly beautiful and it glows with bright light as you pass through it.
Abramovic is quoted as saying 'The portal, for me, is really about a changed state of consciousness... it's about how to access different temporal dimensions, from the cosmic to the earthly. But then I think the physical body can also be a gate."
My friend Giuseppe, founder of @lupocrystalsholisticlondon explained that the portal is made of a cleansing crystals. As he so beautifully put it "I felt like my soul was shaken from the inside out".
The exhibition runs until 1 January 2024 and if you get a chance to go I would love to know your thoughts in the comments section below.
I can’t wait to go there and see her exhibition. Reading this articl, make me feel I went there already with you. Thank you for sharing