Famous Cat
I was forwarded a link to have a look at on twitter, which is a call out for artists to create workshops for DIY10, 2013 with the Live Art Development Agency http://www.thisisliveart.co.uk/prof_dev/diy/diy10_…. Scrolling down the page to theme 7 there was another link to Marina Abramovic’s work referencing her performance The Artist is Present, at MOMA http://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2010/03/15/…. I was surprised to read that a big institution had problems streaming this performance and I question if the artist was consulted on using this medium? Apparently the stream was at a low frame rate and kept getting stuck. The online comments page for the show makes an interesting read.
Why would anyone want to watch this online for any amount of time? I can partly understand why people would want to sit with Marina such as wanting to be near a famous artist, being part of the work, trying to feel a connection with another. However I can’t help but feel that if any other person suggested this as a performance piece it would be laughed at. As Marina Abramovic is ‘famous’ I can imagine institutions are lining up to show her work. This reminds me of the work ‘cut piece’ by Yoko One who re-staged it at the Baltic. She originally sat on the floor however this time she sat on a chair for the duration. I remember watching the video documentation of this and I found it funny how people would come to her and almost bow down to her like she was the Queen. This re-enactment is totally different from when she originally performed it; people were less respectful of her back then.
Are these performances meant to act more like ‘mirrors’ at the audience to look at themselves through the artist? Are the artists taking control of the situation by using their presence & reputation? All these big questions make me want to regress and be silly in my performances. Like a moth to the flame I have been watching Ustream trying to find out what the most popular shows are. It seems that there are only a few formats and the content tends to be live, streamed events such as a concert or sports game. People talk directly to the camera like a low quality TV show. My personal favourite are animals being watched in their environments. Birds and cats are most popular. This has got me thinking about adding some cat special effects to my Penny Arcade wardrobe. Could I simply stream getting ready for the performance?
