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Hello there
Read carefully and follow EVERY SINGLE STEP please.
Write a two-page (550 words) research paper on an artist from Marina Abramovic.
Your paper should include:
- A short background / context on the artist
- A discussion of two to three of her artworks.
Your discussion of the works should be more than a description, it should include
- A critical evaluation of these artworks
- It should also respond to the artist’s methodology/strategy – in YOUR OWN words.
Keep the conversation relevant to time-based artwork and keep in mind some of the following key topics which we have and will continue to discuss throughout the course.
** The important part here is that I want to hear YOUR OWN analysis of the artist’s work – backed by solid research around the artist and context. The discussion topics should be a guide only, to help you keep focused on the aims of this course.
The Discussion Topics we have covered in class: Artistic intentions, socio-political context surrounding the work/artist, gesture, rhythm, experimentation and pushing the limits of a medium, time/duration as a dimension, postmodernism, social practice or new genre public arts, a relationship between arts & activism, heterogeneity / increasingly globalized society, feminist artwork, conceptualism, interactivity, considering the viewer (confronting the viewer), didacticism, the “fourth wall”, the personal as political, narcissism, art & ethics
Artists:
Marina Abramovic
(SEE ATTACHED SAMPLE)
Thank you
Contents
Marina Abramovic
Introduction
Marina Abramovic was born on 30 November 1946 in Belgrade, Yugoslavia (Gershman, 2017). Her parents belonged to the Yugoslav Partisans during World War II, and they held prominent positions in the country’s communist government. Her father worked in the elite guard known as Marshal while her mother worked as an art historian. Marina’s father later left the family and her mother, Danica, took care of her, bringing her up strictly together with her younger brother, Velimir (Westcott, 2014). Though exceptionally strict, Danica was very instrumental in Marina’s early interest in art. She exposed her to various artists in Biennales, Venice. The artists included Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, as well as Louise Nevelson. Marina studied painting during her schooling in Belgrade at the Academy of Fine Arts. She, later on, went to the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb before venturing into performative art in the early 1970s.
She began her career by first creating sound installations, but later moved on to works that involved the body more directly. During this period, she was also teaching at the Academy of Arts at the University of Novi Sad. Her work has been greatly influenced by her experience of living under the Communism dictatorship of Tito as well as the violent relationship she had with her mother (Westcott, 2014). Marina is one of the pioneers of performance art, hence currently referred to as “the grandmother of performance art.” This renowned artist continues to be a great influence to upcoming performance art artists by both giving talks and producing new works.
Rhythm 10 (1973)
Rhythm 10 was one of the first performances in art in which Marina used her body. In the performance, she utilized a series of twenty knives that were quickly stabbed at the spaces that were between her fingers. She severally pierced her skin with the knives. Anytime this happened, she changed the knife and picked another from the series of knives that she had. She repeated the same movements using the rhythmic beats that came from the knives that were falling on the floor as well as her hands. The performance was recorded after the initial thirty minutes. This work is important to Marina as it informed her later works of art. The performance ended after Marina had used every knife twice (Gershman, 2017).
This artists’ works typically display the crucial reality of life. This particular performance was done on top of a white paper. Marina was using it to demonstrate what she had undergone in her earlier life, which had involved both mental and physical endurance because of the strictness and violent nature of her mother (Vergine, 2000). The performance also acts as a test of endurance. It forms the foundation of her later works.
Rhythm 5 (1973)
Rhythm 5 was the second performance by Marina, and it lasted for one and a half hours. It involved the construction of a five-pointed communist star. It was made from wood and wood shavings. The star was then soaked in petrol and set on fire. Marina then walked around it in a crucifixion pose. She later cut her hair and continued walking around the burning star. She acted as if she was a sacrificial offering. This was followed by the cutting of her fingernails, toenails beforespreading them like sacrificial offering. She then lay on the burning star to the point of losing consciousness. She was rescued by the audience (Gershman, 2017).
Marina’s brave performances are a portrayal of the hard experience that people have undergone through the leadership of Tito, a Communist leader. She also seeks to portray the limits of the human body (Turim, 2003). Immense suffering takes toll on a person and eventually their life. The Communist regime’s brutal nature had resulted in the suffering and death of many people living in Yugoslavia.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Marina’s work continues to inspire many artists through the bravery that she exhibits. She gets absorbed into her work to the point of incurring severe injuries. Through art, Marina strives to portray the suffering and hardship that people undergo as result of poor upbringing and poor leadership.
References
Gershman, R. (2017). Marina Abramovic Artist Overview and Analysis. The Art Story.org. Retrieved http://www.theartstory.org/artist-abramovic-marina.htm
Turim, M. C. (2003). Marina Abramovic’s performance: Stresses on the body and psyche in installation art. Camera Obscura, 18(3), 98-117.
Vergine, L. (2000). Body art and performance: the body as language. Skira-Berenice.
Westcott, J. (2014). When Marina Abramovic Dies: A Biography. MIT Press.
