continued from last post
This is interesting that Antoni did not see the first performance as a success. I had not considered that she may have performed ‘Loving Care’ more than once but it seems that it was performed on several occasions. Also there is the idea of the relic. A relic refers to an object kept that relates to an important person and in religious terms it is imbued with the essence of that person or saint as a way of connecting directly with that person. It holds power. An Oxford dictionary definition is a ‘person or thing that has survived from an earlier time but is now outmoded’. Her statement suggests that this is how she approached the first act; as a trial run that would test how the act was perceived but not in her words ‘a performance’. It seems that the first time she did it was part of making it and that through making it she realised that the audience was key to the work. It was them that gave the work power. It is interesting that she uses the world relic with its religious connotations, but perhaps this is a red herring.
When I ‘did’ Loving Care I had a similar realisation about the audience. My reasons for ‘doing’ Loving Care was because I wanted to understand what it was to perform. Although I have had some experience within the performance arts discipline I feel that I do not understand the process for making a performance. As part of my research I felt it would be important to do practical research, to understand what it is to be the artist performing. I selected Loving Care because my only experience of it had been through documentation. Most of the artwork we experience is though the documentation of that artwork and so I wanted to create a scenario where I could explore documentation. I set up a test project in the gallery attached to my studio where I could try out ways of documenting using, pinhole cameras, a motion detecting webcam, minute taking, flip camera and still digital cameras.
I did have a live audience. Three men, two artists and a poet. At 6pm I went to get changed into my black attire. When I came back I began with sweeping the floor which I did out of necessity. The three men were unsure as to how to respond to this – was it part of the performance – should they help me, would it interrupt what I was doing? I could sense their discomfort but continued with what I was doing, until they had all moved to one side of the room, maybe out of the way? At least now I had a space where I could roll out the paper. I felt that my audience had settled now that they could see something happening. Seeing paper, an artists medium, rather than sweeping made the atmosphere change into one of readiness and acceptance.
All the while the webcam took pictures as it dected motion and the audience too took photographs. I began by dipping my head in the bucket of ink and paste and began to mark the floor. After a few moments I began to reflect on what I was doing and who was watching me. I felt degraded. Here I was with my head on the floor my rear end to the ceiling twisting and sprawling whilst these men watched. I paused and wanted to stop. I thought about what they must be thinking and feeling. I expected that they would be pretty uncomfortable so I decide to persist with my act and continue to build the tension.
I completed three rows of paper and left. I was elated when I got back. I had pushed through and hopefully felt some of what Antoni felt as she painted the gallery floor. I spoke with my audience who confirmed their discomfort and thought that I was going to give up when I paused. In response the poet Peter John Cooper wrote and performed a poem the next day.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXj8G65U2Pk
