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I’m tired and quite frankly I want to go to sleep.

Now that I’ve got that thought out of the way, let me write a little something before I lay my head down. Who needs sleep anyway? I mean, really!

I was painting as a young artist and mostly I was painting these clouds and one day, sitting and painting looking in the sky, I saw twelve military planes passing by and they made these incredible drawings in the sky. I look at them and I said, God, you know, it’s ridiculous. I’m painting these paintings that are so two dimensional…So after that, I stopped painting…I can use any material I want. Fire, water, and the body. The moment I started using the body, there was an enormous satisfaction that I had. That I could communicate with the public…I could never go back to the seclusion of the studio…the only way of expression is to perform.

~Marina Abramovic, Excerpt from her MOMA interview regarding her piece, The Artist is Present

I think one of the many reasons I’m looking at Abramovic’s work, lately, is due to the fact that I’m trying to draw correlations between her and the work of Guillermo Gomez Pena and his performance troupe, La Postra Nostra. Both artists have travelled the world performing art (different from conceptual art, which deals more with materiality). Performance art deals, predominantly, with the body. Deep down inside, I’m a two dimensional artist but, recently, I have paid close attention to performance art because it does something that many art forms are unable to do – engage the public, physically. It calls for immediate presence and attention. It also draws the viewer into a unique experience that becomes a part of a moment versus something that can be relived (everyday) on a much more ocular level (i.e., paintings, sculptures, etc.). Performance art is not something you can collect, per se, but it is something that finds its way through our subconscious and provokes the mind to re-interpret life. It also gives you the option to participate, which is something I’ll touch upon when I gather my final thoughts about the Corpo Ilicito show.

Speaking of participatory art, for your reading pleasure, an interesting read about participatory art by Christine Wong Yap, Bay Area Artist. Enjoy!

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I figured I would post a link to the wiki entry for Performance Art.

Not that you, dear reader, have some kind of writing assignment. I’m, certainly, not voluntelling (a word invented at my office) you. You don’t have to read anything but I thought you might like to take a peek at what has been defined as performance art to gain a better understanding of my forthcoming piece involving Guillermo Gómez–Peña‘s performance troupe, La Posta Nostra.

Also, please consider, the documentation (i.e., photography, recordings, etc.) of performance art becomes a part of the artwork itself. The photographs I took (over 280+ of the performance) play a part in showcasing the art. Although you may not have been present, your interest and distance from the experience can still prompt a dialogue. I have yet to go through all the photographs and wanting to select those that best capture the essence of the performances but it’s rather difficult to choose.

In any case, I’m hoping I can do the show justice in my piece. I will try to describe it as best as I can. In the interim, I wanted to give you a visual preview. These are a couple shots I took during the show. Pretty intense stuff. More to follow…

La Postra Nostra - Corpo Ilicito / Photo by: Dorothy Santos
La Postra Nostra - Corpo Ilicito / Photo by: Dorothy Santos

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La Pocha Nostra

Yet, I had to write a little something about the next piece I’m working on – La Pocha Nostra.

Yesterday, I attended the Corpo Illicito: The Post Human Society #69 performance piece at the SOMArts Cultural Center. There’s a lot of processing going on but I wanted to forewarn you of any photos I may post of the event (yes, it was one of those performance art pieces, photos will be for the extremely open-minded and for a more mature audience only).

For now, I’ll just say this, I’ve never experienced performance art like that. I’ve been to experimental/performance art pieces but this was intense. I’ll definitely be posting something a bit more polished in the next couple of weeks.