Final 343 Performance piece

Luiza Benisano
Art 343
Final Project

For my final project, I chose to do a performance piece. Personally as an art student, I was curious to feel what it was like to do a performance piece. To be a performance artist. Throughout the semester I have seen artists in the likes of Yoko Ono, Marina Abramovic and Bas Jan Ader do performance pieces that evoked so much subliminal meaning that it was all up for open interpretation. It was interesting to me that a lot of their pieces did not involve them talking or be literate at all, and yet their piece conveyed so many messages. I believe that, that was a challenge in doing such a project. When creating the idea of my performance piece, I was advised to do something that had meaning. My original idea was that I wanted to do something inspired by Marina Abramovic and Yoko Ono. I gathered that their pieces often were violent-themed. On top of that, I had to blend the themes of the artists into the writing of Moyra Davey. Moyra Davey wrote Photographs and Accidents, which talks about the accidents of taking photographs and how viewers seek this imagery. This kind of imagery, although incites curious-ridden viewers, these are also the kind of images that are unseen. Initially, those were the ideas that I had to do a project. Violence and unseen. With those ideas in mind, I thought of a political issue I have always taken a stand in. It is a political issue that not too many people know or probably even talk about because there is a lot of misunderstood information. In the past, I have always wanted to shed a light on the issue because I am passionate about it. Towards brainstorming the idea for my project, I was pretty sure I wanted my subject to be about the political issue of human trafficking. My next challenge was putting those two pieces of ideas together. My plan was for my piece to convey two things. One was for me to personally experience what it is like to be violated. I somehow wanted to simulate what it felt like to be a victim of human trafficking and that interpretation to me is to be violated and controlled. Because I am so interested in the issue, I thought it would be best fitting for me to actually feel what it is like, as close as possible as I can. The other goal I had in mind was to have my audiences do things to me that in the process signifies that I am giving them control of what they want to do to me, which is a form of violation. I wanted to do something that they would not realize was a way of violating me. Overall, I was trying to simulate the experience of human trafficking the best way I can interpret it. I am fairly sure that those who partake it don’t even know the magnitude or that they are even partaking in human trafficking. A common misnomer about human trafficking is that the victims are consensual prostitutes seeking to make money, but instead are held ransom and would be beaten if they said otherwise. In my eyes, they are victims and I don’t think people see that. That is why I wanted the participating audience to not have a clue what they are doing and then figure out that in a way, although I asked them to do those actions, that in a way they still violated me. I came up with two contrasting ideas as to how I wanted to present my piece. The first was to intensify my vulnerability by having people cut off pieces of my shirt similar to Yoko Ono’s piece. The second piece was to ask the participating audience to put make up on me. I feel that those two actions are very significant in what women go through. On one hand, they are masking all the darkness and beautify themselves in hopes meeting the end goal, which is to meet somebody for the night. The next is what really takes place. Vulnerability. Baring and sharing yourself unwantedly with unfamiliar territory. That was my overall piece. The difficulty I found in doing the performance piece was that I was terrified! I was terrified for a lot of reasons. First, I was scheduled to perform first; second, I knew that I would be pressed for time and lastly, I was terrified. Because of all these contributing factors, I had only asked five people in the audience to participate and because of my nervousness, I rushed my performance. But overall, this project was the most risk-taking piece I have attempted. It terrified me to perform it, but I did. It was a good push for myself personally because even if it was so nerve wracking for me, it was important for me to able to convey my message that I deemed to be important. The end result of my piece was that nobody tore up my shirt, which was okay with me! And at least five women from the audience came up to put make up on me. The most distinct one was someone drew red lipstick across my nose, which made me look like my nose was bleeding. I would have preferred it, although nerve wracking, if someone did tear my shirt up so I could have accomplished my goal and that was to simulate vulnerability. I feel like my message would have been clearer if my other intention was also preceded. Overall, I am happy with my project. Even if it might have been unsuccessful, the success for me was that I was still able to have my piece and message conveyed to the audience. And also, I got to feel how nerve wrecking it is to perform an art piece for the audience. What I would do differently is take my time and not be too terrified so I can convey my message better.