MARINA ABRAMOVIC
I really enjoyed some of the works in this show at the Lisson Gallery. The most compelling was ‘Art must be beautiful, Artist must be beautiful’ 1975, this was a video of the top half of the artist naked brushing her hair and face, repeating the title as a mantra. She says about the performance “I brush my hair with a metal brush held in my right hand and simultaneously comb my hair with a metal comb held in my left hand. While so doing, I continuously repeat ‘Art must be beautiful, Artist must be beautiful’, until I have destroyed my hair and face. Having watched/read the video of her traumatic upbringing ‘Confession’, which I imagine to be true having seen her other work I see she was pushed to her limits whist growing up and her artwork has become an extension of this. However I think it should be noted that if she wasn’t beautiful then the work wouldn’t be so compelling, it would be far more grotesque.
I have just finished reading a book which in my mind links with this work, A fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry, this book tells a story about four characters in India in the mid-1970’s who are caught up in various life struggles from repressed child hood to extreme poverty and caste abuse to political corruption. The fine balance from the title is the theme throughout the book as we, through the characters, find out the fine balance between hope and despair. Linking to Marina’s work I would comment that the ability to endure is something that will tip the balance to hope rather than despair. These are themes that I have been thinking about in my current work.
