Artist who was 'ready to die' after allowing people to do anything to her for six hours reveals its long-lasting effects

An artist who became famous for a controversial artistic performance in the 1970s suffered long-lasting effects afterwards.

In 1974, Serbian artist Marina Abramović hosted something she titled 'Rhythm 0' - a six-hour long endurance art performance.

During this six-hour period, Marina allowed bystanders to do as they pleased to her with a series of objects she had laid out in front of her.

The 72 items ranged from flowers and perfume, to scissors and a gun.

Marina Abramović is an acclaimed Serbian artist (Elisabetta A. Villa/Getty Images)

The purpose of the unconventional piece was to see how far the public would go.

While people were initially hesitant to get involved, eventually they grew more confident and ended up inflicting some harrowing acts on Marina.

By the end of it, Marina says she was 'ready to die'.

Decades on from the performance and Marina opened up about how 'Rhythm 0' affected her for some time afterwards.

Revealing in a 2010 interview with The Guardian that she still had the scars from the cuts inflicted on her, Marina further shared: "After the performance, I have one streak of white hair on my head.

The artist placed everything from flowers to guns for people to use in 'Rhythm 0' (YouTube/Marina Abramovic Institute)

"I cannot get rid of the feeling of fear for a long time. Because of this performance, I know where to draw the line so as not to put myself at such risk."

In a more recent interview last year, Marina said that she'll only do something 'if [she's] afraid of it'.

"If there’s something I would like to do, I don’t do it," the artist told the Royal Academy.

"I only do something if I’m afraid of it, because that’s the whole point. If we always tend to do things that we like, then we are creating the same pattern, making the same mistakes again, and we never get out into unknown territory."

Going on to speak about her 'The Artist is Present' exhibition, which was further looked at in 2012 documentary titled, Marina Abramovic: The Artist Is Present, Marina questioned if she'd gone crazy.

Marina has done a series of artistic performances over the years (STR/AFP via Getty Images)

She recalled: "I remember when I first had the first idea for 'The Artist is Present', I said to myself, 'Oh my God, I’m crazy. How can I do this for three months?' But then I became obsessed.

"And it was so hard. It was supernatural to do this - to sit in front of thousands of different people, eight hours a day for three months. There were days when I thought I could not continue. But I did it. And this came out of the complete fear that I could not do it."