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
