Failure of Performance Art and Formula to Change Its Perspective
Most of the time performance artists are not doing their job properly. This is how it all started, where they continue to mess up and what they can do about it.
Performance Art
Performance art – is a conceptual set of actions presented to the live audience with the aim of expressing an opinion and/or to convey a sociocultural message. PA originated in the 70s as the alternative method of presenting artworks to the small groups of the target audience. Legit artists would organize live demonstrations to show their talents in such branches as body art and sculpting. Whereas half-amateurs who wanted to get the attention were busy doing unhealthy things using word “art” as a shield of depth and creativity.
According to “the grandmother of performance art” Marina Abramović, in early 70s performance art was “ridiculous”. She stated that it was a sick movement that consisted of exhibitionists and masochists. But gradually artists began to include to their arsenal something more than their paintbrushes and genitals... In one of Marina’s most extreme performances Rhythm 0 (1974) among 72 objects that she placed on the table were such things as bread, grapes, and roses. But there were also such objects as scissors, nails, chains and even a pistol with a bullet. She would allow visitors to do anything they want to her. Marina explained the intentions behind the project in a very simple and intelligible way:
I said okay, I’m going to make a peace to see how far the public can go if the artist himself doesn’t do anything
At first, visitors treated Marina with respect and extreme carefulness. But at some point, their sadistic side would kick in and began to shamelessly leave noticeable “footprints” all over her body. She even almost got shot during the process that took 6 hours. It was one of the best examples of performance art since everything was understandable without words. It demonstrated that in the state temporal permissiveness the harmful energy is only a thin layer on top of the wild and sick nature of animal we call homo sapiens.
As the years went by, PA began to add a political context to its “oeuvre” and spread far outside of the gallery territories. It would appear in the most various places of so-called “civilized world” full of unprepared and therefore more vulnerable and intolerant audience.
After decades of its existence, performance art got once again heavily abused by people who search for recognition by being outrageous and shocking. As a result, today’s society describes their actions as a weird, provocative, silly and clinical stunt of self-proclaimed “artist” in attempt to obtain the status of a creative, wise and brave protestor. Due to the lack of true articism, PA got once again overfilled with freaks who damage its reputation. This time in the era of information society it did not get off easy. And primarily because of its main characters.
The Mess of Modern Performance Artists
Emotions are one of the main sources of energy for artists when it comes down to creating something new. This force of habit causes artists to put their personal feelings much higher above the common sense and logical thinking. And the side effect is a message delivery failure.
Many people consider art a higher form of communication. Even if we suppose it that is so, performer artists are clearly doing a horrible job at delivering their thoughts. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be identified as attention-seeking schizophrenics as often as they are. Many of their attempts to start a dialogue using the method of performance art turn out later to be a great example of anti-communication skills. Whether it is a headline of the news or something that is being witnessed live, the modern and sensitive public is very likely to mark it with a disgrace without finding any meaning behind the performance.
Figuratively speaking what they do nowadays is rubbing a fecal matter into a microphone before making a verbal point into it. Even if it’s a good statement the level of audience’s disgrace will force them to close their ears with hands and dismiss the whole speech. In the end, information may only be received by a minority of high disgust-tolerance people. And performer artists are don’t seem to be concerned with this mostly disdainful feedback.
There are different styles in which performer artists prefer to “communicate”. Some of these people become known for getting their point across in a specific way for multiple amounts of times:
Milo Moire – nudity.
Ron Atheyon – self-mutilation.
Petr Pavlensky – nudity, self-mutilation, arson.
Extreme lack of clarity that many of these people tend to extract explaining their “art” make their works even more senseless and incomprehensible for the audience. Cesspool of milled counterfeit meanings, pointless motivation, and combination of unrelatable ideas are some of the most precise words to describe their attempts to explain themselves. This is how the aforementioned people decrypt their performances:
- Milo Moire on shooting colorful paint-filled eggs out of her vagina:
I’m interested in pushing boundaries through art, living and expressing my art with my body and mind while opening mental doors
- Ron Atheyon on sitting on the glass wearing a wig with needles underneath:
In the Self Obliteration [performance art] series with the blond wig and the glass, they don't mean anything, and the needles hidden underneath the wig are a kind of masquerade to do with my turning fifty.
- Petr Pavlensky on nailing his testicles to a cobblestone:
A naked artist, looking at his testicles nailed to the cobblestone is a metaphor of apathy, political indifference, and fatalism of Russian society.
“Paints” for “Drawing it Over”
The modern formula performer artists got used to applying whenever they want to make a creative statement consists of wrong variables. Currently, it looks like this:
E + W = eccentric witlessness
It is incredibly simple and requires very little patience to get a quick result in the form of misunderstanding reaction. However, most if not all of the time these simple “calculations” make the same artists believe that they are true “mathematicians”. In reality, they got their heads so far up their asses moist with overdue “well, it’s an art form” lotion, that their lost connection with reality disables them to make a clear distinction between “deep” and “dumb”. It is one thing if they want to get famous and become a freaky part of the media field. But if they show up there to make a difference, it is in their best interest to reconsider their old formula and come up with a completely new one. The one that requires a level of imagination that is high enough for solving the equations with multiple variables. The one that looks approximately like this:
(N + O) + (B + U + L + L + S + H + I + T) = nonconforming oddly bodacious, unusual, long-lasting, structural, highly inspiring thought
It contains zero unnecessary garbage-variables and presents to a viewer a combination of exclusively important ideas in a beautiful, original and truly artistic manner.
If presenting a letter was art and artist was a mailman who wants to inspire the receiver, selecting the presenting tactics would be the starting point that would in many ways determine the result. It would be easy to wipe up a dog with the envelope and say that the stains describe the reputation of the sender. But it also would be a lot harder to fold an origami pentagram by giving the same description. Anyone who would prefer the first option over the second can be justifiably classified as insane. The same way nowadays public reasonably describes performer artists.
About the Author: Zack Hargrove is a remote editor who is willing to provide statistics homework help. One of his missions is to notice interesting, unusual phenomenons and tendencies in the world of art and reporting it to a diverse scope of audience. He also has plenty of college essays for sale on his alternative website.