Artist who was 'ready to die' after allowing people to do anything to her for six hours explains why she only does things she's 'afraid' of
An artist has opened up about why being 'afraid' is important when she's creating performance art.
Marina Abramović is one of the most recognizable performance artists across the globe, her work extremely daring, pushing both physical and mental boundaries, offering deeply thought-provoking reflections on the psyche of humans and how we connect with each other and the world around us.
One performance piece saw the artist stand for six hours letting spectators do whatever they wanted to her body - an intimate, bold and somewhat uncomfortable task to say the least - however, she's since revealed why she's simply not interested in creating art unless it causes her some level of discomfort.
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The six-hour performance took place in the 1970s and saw Abramović stand for the duration with 72 objects placed out in front of her.
Spectators were then invited to pick them up and use them on her in whatever way they wanted.
Items ranged from flowers and perfume to scissors and even a loaded gun, with the performance - titled Rhythm O - testing how far strangers would go, revealing a scary insight into the prevalence and extremity of misogyny still present in society.
The performance left Abramović 'ready to die,' the artist reflecting it taught her 'not to put [herself] at such a risk' ever again.
However, despite being unable to shake that 'feeling of fear for a long time,' that doesn't mean she's reduced the theme of discomfort in her art altogether - far from it.
She told the Royal Academy she's strict with herself when it comes to not feeling comfortable in her art and she finds a level of fear is actually crucial to her work.
Abramović explained: "If there’s something I would like to do, I don’t do it. 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."
Although, in her 2012 documentary, the artist admitted she questioned whether this made her 'crazy' particularly when it came to performing The Artist is Present for three consecutive months.
Her performance of The Artist is Present marked the longest piece she's performed solo to date and she admitted when she first had the idea she said to herself: "Oh my God, I’m crazy. How can I do this for three months?"
However, she then '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," she continued.
Abramović saw the performance piece as her 'big chance to show the public the power, the transformative power, of performance art, by literally doing nothing - by just being in a space and being noticed'.
And facing such a level of fear certainly paid off, with Abramović reflecting: "And then came this incredible thing: people sleeping outside the museum, standing there for hours to see the work. It had 850,000 visitors, which broke records for any living artist. And this was absolutely by being still, being the eye of the tornado."
Topics: Art, Mental Health, World News, Marina Abramović
Poppy Bilderbeck