Metamorphosis

Yoko Ono’s “Cut Piece” Performance

Yoko Ono on her performance “Cut Piece”, was performed several times at different dates, and always was in a position of vulnerable object, however she brought different reflections in each of the performances with the same theme. The first time, Ono brought reflection on the right to invade the lives of others or not, when the audience was watching one video, and this was purposely removed, leading the public to participate in an act of figurative violence.

Ono’s performance also created an action interactive with the audience, giving them opportunity to the public of decide on the participation for helping to build the work of the artist, who acted as a weak target, creating yet another exchange ratio between them. However, Ono not lost the authorship of the performance when she decided the time to finish the act of cutting his clothing pieces.
Ono also stated that it is possible the same theme to be performed by a man or a woman, to be able to reflect which are the limits of extension between people.
This event was resubmitted in 2003 in Paris. At that time, the declaration was made through “printed statement”, and Ono suggested to the audience, that each piece of her clothing cut off could be sent as a postcard to someone loved. Her work “evolved from the beginning of creating a consciousness of violence until the manifestation of kindness and peace, shifting the focus for destruction Twin Towers by terrorists in New York.

Hélio Oiticica: Parangolés’s Performance
1 August 2007

This performance recreates the groundbreaking work of Brazilian artist Hélio Oiticica. Frustrated by the limitations of painting, Oiticica devoted himself to finding ways in which painting could be taken off the gallery walls and out into 3-dimensional space. One result was his ‘Parangolés’ of the mid-1960s. Literally habitable paintings, they were designed to be worn while dancing to the rhythm of samba. They came out of his involvement with the people of Mangueira Hill, a Rio de Janeiro shantytown, and Mangueira’s famous samba school.

http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/video/performance-parangoles

So to highlight my work I started building my adornments that I had thought to use on my neck together with carnival costume. For that, I began to select some materials like hard cardboard, thin wooden sticks that are found in the coffee shop, feathers, and wood glue. First I made a mold and cut the cardboard, so I spent adhesive tape around the mold to become more resistant, glued fine wood and small sticks, then to deal with this support in the neck, I made a small hole on each side mold to tie a rubber band to hold around her shoulders, as I show in the photos below.

For decoration of the dark space, I tried to do as much as possible similar the decoration of carnival. Unfortunately, I have no money to buy appropriate materials, and it was also difficult to find here shops specializing in carnival decorations, so I used different colored materials Christmas like confetti, bright wire on the roof, and carnival masks hanging on the wall.

I confectioned my own carnival costume, and for this I used a skirt of black phylum, and a black corset, which was fully stitched with pink feathers, it was inspired on carnival costumes from Brazil.

After all the carnival costume ready, I came to the conclusion that I should not use neck support, because it would be too heavy on of carnival costume composition and because I also had already done for use on the head an accessory with cardboard base and pink feathers.

Phase 2 of Metamorphosis performance – Carnival’s feast on the dark room

Why did I choose make this performance phase 2?

As in the first phase of the performance, the idea came while I was writing my essay on Hélio Oiticica.

Who inspired me for this performance phase 2?

For this second phase I sought inspiration in Hélio Oiticica, he was a Brazilian artist who sought to bring to their performances and installations everyday problems of poverty of the favelas of Rio de Janeiro and the marginalization of people and the conflict with the police at the time the dictatorship in Brazil; and also because I think some problems that happen in Brazil are the same in many parts of the world, when it relates to Political issues, Socio-economic, and I found it interesting also to inspire my art on a Brazilian artist.

However, for this performance, I only took some references about Oiticica Parangolés, on as regards the joy of the people and the carnival samba music, which I used to perform.

But as this second phase it was a continuation of the first performance, it was to show the transformation of woman in society, and especially in Brazil when the carnival celebrations take place most people are transformed, leaving aside all the daily problems, influenced by the festive mood. Although this transformation does not happen just from day to night, because any popular celebration in Brazil has influence on the people by several days of advance through advertisements on television, in stores, and in all public places, and however much you want to not experience, the people are involved.

So I think this performance brings the message that all change and transformation happens gradually, and often it is necessary for the well-being.

Why did I use the dark room?

My intention to use the dark room is because I like working with projection of shadows. Then, I selected some images of the internet with Brazilian carnival music and through a colourful abstract painting done by me, and I made video images with movements of this frame. Well, on the day of the presentation I projected in my body with carnival costumes and some people who participated with me dancing with these images on us. Then, I used two projectors, one at each side of the wall, and the images were projected across from each other, and we were in the middle of the room.

I think this kind of art with shadows, brings a very cool effect and at the same time we can convey some messages, according to a theme chosen by the public to this effect.
Surely after my graduation in this course, I will create more performances with shadows as well.

What was the result of performance?

However I worried also because the room was totally dark, ok, went to the shadows stand out well, but I also would like my image of carnival costumes were seen by the public. Heck, this day I was a little confused as to the result, but the feedback I received from my teachers made me very happy because this stage 2 performance everything went perfectly, including the shadows worked great on my body.

How did I chose make this performance?

The idea for this performance came when I was writing my essay on the artists Hélio Oiticica and Yoko Ono.

How did I develop this performance?

This performance had two phases. The first phase was inspired and contextualized on Ono’s “Cut Piece performance. I found it very interesting her performance, because through the theme Ono brought many reflections and also sought the participation of the audience who was instrumental in the execution of the act to cut their pieces of clothing and having she defined the time to finish without losing the own authorship of the work. So I took some references this performance to create my own performance.

How did I prepare and performed at the white room?

For this performance, I brought my own pieces of clothing from home and placed next to where I was standing with open arms and silent. At the time of presentation, I invited my colleagues and teachers of the course as audience and explained how the act should take place. I invited them to participate actively in the act, where one by one, should wear my clothes.

It was interesting because my first goal was to they dress me, but at the time of the act, who participated decided to just superimpose the clothes on my body, leaving me feel the weight of the clothes on my body. However, I decided the time that would end the performance by the number of available clothing pieces for the act.
After that, I invited everyone to walk with me through the halls to the university library. There were a few laughs, and I could not also contain, however I should have shown more sense on the performance, because my proposal was to question the responsibilities assumed by women in their daily lives, when they assume the role of mother, housewife, wife and work outside the home to help provide household expenses. Simple as that, I felt like I was being invaded on my privacy when people put clothes on me. I also brought the message about the invasion of privacy of other people in our lives but as it is experimentation, I shall do it again to document this moment.

Feedback from teachers was that I should act more seriously and sense of suffering in the performance because there was some laughter. The performance could be better performed if I had before, through someone or a note explaining the public participation process.

Cubism

Also in some of my paintings I have some inspiration in the Cubist movement by Pablo Picasso and George Braque. This was the first style of abstract art, which evolved at the beginning of the 20th century in response to the world that was changing with unprecedented speed. Cubism was an attempt by artists to revitalize the tired traditions of Western art, who believed has run their course. The Cubists challenged conventional forms of representation, such as perspective, which had been the rule since the Renaissance. Their aim was to develop a new way of seeing which reflected the modern age.

http://www.artyfactory.com/art_appreciation/art_movements/cubism.htm

Cubism was a revolutionary new approach to representing reality invented in around 1907/08 by artists Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque who aimed to bring different views of subjects (usually objects or figures) together in the same picture, resulting in paintings that appear fragmented and abstracted

What inspired cubist style?

Cubism was partly influenced by the late work of Paul Cézanne in which he can be seen to be painting things from slightly different points of view. Pablo Picasso was also inspired by African tribal masks which are highly stylised, or non-naturalistic, but nevertheless present a vivid human image. ‘A head’, said Picasso, ‘is a matter of eyes, nose, mouth, which can be distributed in any way you like’.

http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/cubism

http://www.artyfactory.com/art_appreciation/art_movements/cubism.htm
https://www.pinterest.com/kerry1402/cubism/