I went to Tasmania last week for a holiday to visit some lovely friends. It was dreamy. Some highlights included going for a 1am tinny ride on the Huon River, driving past abandoned apple orchards and mountains and finally learning to appreciate stout. I also went to MONA (Museum of Old and New Art) for the first time. Set into the side of a cliff, surrounded by mist and seagulls MONA is the creation of professional gambler David Walsh. It is a Serious Art Museum that draws a huge number of tourists to Tassie and employs a large staff of curators, invigilators, assistants and hospitality workers. The museums collection of art is interesting in that it is from multiple histories and contexts. There is an Egyptian Sarcophogas displayed alongside Erwin Wurm's squishy 'Fat Car,' contemporary video works next to ancient Greek sculpture. Many of the works relate to sex, death and the body in some way. There is also an exhibition program that has hosted some amazing shows (wish I'd made it to see Matthew Barney's a little while ago) Currently on is an exhibition of Marina Abramovic's work, 'Private Archaeology,' that includes a mix of video, sound, photography, and participatory performances. On entering the museum and descending the spiral staircase into the heart of the cliff, there is an elegant bar and the sound of Abramovic reading her 'An Artists Life (Manifesto)' At this stage, I decided to sit a while and drink a beer. Many of the suggestions were amusing but apt:
'The artist must make time for long periods of solitude. An artist should suffer. The artist must develop an erotic point of view on the world. An artist should avoid falling in love with another artist. The funeral is the artist's final art piece before leaving.'
In the first few rooms there were several videos of performances created through the collaboration of Abramovic and German performance artist Ulay. This collaboration lasted over a decade and was of the type that each artists individual identity was effaced by the partnerships conceptual and aesthetic concerns. Their goal was to overcome the artistic ego. I like the way that as their partnership went on, Abramovic and Ulay began to look more and more alike.
Abramovic/Ulay, AAA-AAA, 1977
The two artists draw breath and then yell and howl at one another over and over again. Sometimes it seems like one or the other is getting the upper hand....drowning out the others voice, or dominating. It's like an argument. Emptying the body and flaying the vocal cords, the male and female energies battle it out.
Abramovic/Ulay, Breathing In/Breating Out, 1976
I find this work a beautiful metaphor for the destructiveness of co-dependancy in relationships. Locking mouths together Abramovic/Ulay breath one anothers air until their is no oxygen left and both artists collapse unconscious.
Abramovic/Ulay, Rest Energy, 1980
Again, this performance really speaks to me of the fraught nature of romantic relationships. The delicate balance between love, obsession, harm and tenderness. I just finished reading 'Monkey Grip' by Helen Garner, so perhaps this theme is on my mind. In this performance the artists face one another down, delicately leaning and jostling, with the arrow aimed directly at Marina's heart. The violence is implied, possible, dependent on mutual concentration and effort.
Marina Abramovic, Confessions, 2010
In this work, Abramovic whispers confessions and memories from her childhood to a donkey. I don't know what the donkey thought of them. They were subtitled onscreen. They seemed like a continuous dream narrative.
There was an interesting room that had drawers filled with notes, photos and observations. It was interesting that there were several photographs from Abramovic's travels in the Northern Territory and Central Australia. I wonder if she sought permission to reproduce images of the Indigenous people she photographed. I hope so. I've found the way that Abramovic has discussed Indigenous cultures to be slightly fetishistic in the past. I was interested by this performance by Ben D'Armagnac. It seems prophetic that the artist made a work about the destructive powers of water and then drowned a week later.
After poring through this room, I took the opportunity to participate in the Abramovic Institutes 'Counting Grains of Rice' performance. Performers are given a lab coat and sound-canceling headphones, before entering a room with a long table. Along the centre is a mound of rice and black lentils. Assistants scoop a cup of grains and place them before you with a pencil and piece of paper. The goal is to tally how many of each grain. But how to do it? What kind of systematic method to use? I laid my grains out in a grid in groups of ten grains. I only lasted about 40 minutes before the futility of the task got to me. I understand that meditation is the purpose of the exercise....and it was a great experience, but I really wanted to get outta there.
Marina Abramovic, The Onion, 1996
She ate the whole onion. Tears of ouch.
Marina Abramovic, Golden Mask, 2010
The only movement in this is the gentle rustle of the gold leaf in the breeze. What does it mean? Abramovic's characteristically hypnotic gaze is there.....but I'm not sure what the gold is for. Does it relate to her art-celebrity status? To the artistic tradition of sculpture and religious art? I don't know.
Overall, I really enjoyed this exhibition. It included some artworks that have influenced me immensely as a performance artist. Abramovic is formidable in that she has pushed the limits of physical and mental endurance, as well as bringing performance art to the mainstream.
Here are some of my other faves from MONA:
Forget who this is by.
Wim Delvoye, Cloaca, 2012
Aye, the poop machine. It smelt horrible. It was kind of awesome to see the 'food' swirling around in the glass stomachs. Felt bad for the person who had to sit this room though.
Forget who this video work was by....but I like it. Trippy.
And finally, there was a live stream of Christian Boltanski's studio playing in a little bunker right next to where you take the ferry. Which I thought was AWESOME!
'Private Archaeology' on until October 5th.
MONA
655 Main Road, Berriedale TAS 7011
"I am for an art that does something other than sit on its ass in a museum. I am for an art that grows up not knowing it is art at all, an art given the chance of having a starting point of zero. I am for an art that involves itself with the everyday crap and still comes out on top. I am for an art that imitates the human, that is comic if necessary, or violent, or whatever is necessary. I am for an art that takes its form from the lines of life, that twists and extends impossibly and accumulates and spits and drips and is sweet and stupid as life itself."
-Statement for the catalogue of an exhibition at Martha Jackson Gallery, "Environments, Situations, Spaces," May-June 1961, in which the first form of the Store was presented.
There is an amazing, clever, exhilarating exhibition on at the Monash University Museum of Art at the moment. "Art as a Verb" looks at a number of young Australian artists and juxtaposes their performance-based, active art practices with works by iconic performance artists of the 1960s and 70s such as Yoko Ono, Vito Acconci and Marina Abramovic. In this way, art that intersects with daily life, that is visceral, bodily and physical, can be seen on a continuum. The contemporary trend towards creating work that is social, inclusive and community based, can be seen in relation to it's predecessors and influences.
After entering the cool, low-slung glass door of MUMA, the first artwork you see is Official Welcome, 2001 by Andrea Fraser. It is a video/performance work in which Fraser parodies speeches given at exhibition opening events. She first acts out the role of the curator praising the beauty, scale, and universality of 'the artist's' work. She describes visiting the artist in his studio which was full of artwork so challenging that she could not fathom the meaning of it. Then she becomes the artist, inarticulate, egotistical and unable to talk about his work. Finally, she takes the role of the critic and gushes about the artists vision and skill (you can see the artwork in question in the background of the video; it appears to be a multi-coloured installation, as well as a few photographs on the wall.) I found Fraser's performance pretty entertaining, funny and true to the self-congratulatory nature of exhibition openings. It illustrated the narcissism, dependancy and lack of honest discourse that can exist between artist, curator and critic.
Petrol station everyday of 2011, 2011-12, by Kenny Pittock is a photographic work in which the artist does exactly what the title says, and photographs a petrol station near their house every day for an entire year. Accompanying the photoographs is a statement by the artist describing the difficulties of the project, being unable to leave town or holiday for a full year and the toll this takes on relationships. "I had to cut short hot dates and once devastatingly turned down a free holiday with my girlfriend. It was funny for a while but eventually gave the impression I'd never prioritise her over my art, which is a truly difficult problem to overcome." I like the simplicity and straightforwardness of this work. It's about performing a task, the same task, every day to see what happens.
Paul McCarthy, Painter, 1995
One of the photographic works included was The Kiss Part 3, 2011 by Anastasia Klose. The image documents a project she undertook in which she offered free kisses to passersby. I find this work romantic, although it is staged, the image gives a sense of intimacy and romance.
Christian Thompson's Desert Slippers, 2006, is a visceral performance that shows a traditional ritual of the Bidjara people to whom Thompson belongs. In the video, Thompson stands opposite his father who after wiping his hands through his armpits, presses them upon his first-born son's shoulders. The gesture is then repeated, back and forth, between father and son.
The last two rooms of the show focus on performances from the 1960s and 70s. Firstly, Stick a Round, 1975, is a work in which Jill Scott has herself taped to the wall of the gallery. In this way, her body takes the place of the art object as something to be eyeballed and observed. During the show at MUMA, this work was re-enacted live by contemporary performance artist, Mira Oesterwegher.
One of the pieces that I found most fascinating to observe in the flesh was Teching Hsieh's One Year Performances. These five works are perhaps a benchmark of the extremes to which a performance artist may or may not be willing to go. In Cage Piece, 1978, Hsieh stays inside a cage of 3.5 x 2.7 x 2.4m for a full year, without any form of entertainment or diversion. A friend delivers meals to him daily. Rope Piece, 1983, involves him tying himself to fellow performance artist Linda Montano with a 2.4m rope and remaining attached together for a full year. They must remain in the same room, but are not permitted to touch one another. I'm interested in learning more about Linda Montano's work. She completed this work with Hsieh, a very harrowing one it would have been too. To never be alone. Apparently she made performances with Annie Sprinkle too....so I'll have to research her a bit more. Perhaps the most extreme of the One Year Performances is Outdoor Piece, 1981, in which Teching Hsieh does not enter a building, train, car, bus or tent for an entire year. He moves around New York with a backpack and a sleeping bag and sleeps wherever he can. What is remarkable about these work is not just the intense level of commitment this artist must have to his practice, but also the sparing way that they are documented. Each piece has a contract detailing the 'rules' of the experiment which the artist has signed, as well as one photograph.
The final room of the exhibition contains TV monitors with a number of B&W video performances on display. Most notable among them is Art must be beautiful, artist must be beautiful, 1975 by Marina Abramovic and Theme Song, 1973 by Vito Acconci. The later involves Acconci repeatedly imploring the viewer to come be with him, to hang out, to touch him, with him humming along to 'People are Strange' by The Doors and smoking darts. Pretty approachable and enjoyable and iconic. Every performance artist is familiar with the influence of these two artists. Even the simplistic style of filming they used is fetishized in contemporary art.
'Art as a Verb'
3 October - 16 December 2014
MUMA
Monash University, Caulfield campus
900 Dandenong Road
Caulfield East, VIC 3145
Australia
