After original pitches, I had a much clearer understanding of what was going to be needed within my performance to make sure the relation to performing in the space is relevant, and to consolidate different responses people may have to the artwork I am using as my stimulus and work around how I can represent these ideas.
In the beginning part of the session, we had the opportunity to set tasks to others in our group based around our performance, in which we could gather information from and see how a spectator of the artwork reflects on your piece. I asked Chloe to have a moment with the artwork ‘Never Leave Home Without It’, in which she would remember her first love, and stay in this moment for 5 minutes. I informed her that there was no wrong or right way to do this, just to move her body in any way she felt appropriate, and to stay focused and committed to what I’d asked her to reflect upon. I only asked her to attempt this for 5 minutes, instead of the 15 minutes that I would perform it for, because it was a test to see if she would connect to the art at all, and to see how it felt for her to endure 5 minutes of stillness, as I would have to do this for three times that amount of time.
From this task, I realised that during my performance, it may require more than a still image from myself to get across to a spectator what I am representing. Also, I realised that it won’t be enough just to be making these statements with my body, I will need to incorporate a textual component in order for the audience to have something they can base my movements around.
The reason for me performing 24 moments is because there are 24 hours in a day, and I want to represent how many vital uses the heart has, and how it performs these functions everyday in order to keep us alive. We often take for granted how our organs give us life, and so I feel that to physically embody one of the most important organs, will give the spectator an insight into something they can all relate to as it’s something we all have, and gives them the opportunity to consider the significance of such a small part of their anatomy. I am considering the idea of having a list of the twenty four notions I will be performing. This way, the audience doesn’t have to rely solely on looking at me to know what I am doing. I have also contemplated the thought of having a short written response to every notion that has been written on the list, to give the audience something to read and reflect upon on a personal level, whilst also having a visual response which is what I shall be performing.
My goal is to be able to reach through to anyone who stops to watch and consider my piece. Through the 24 notions, I aim to have something that everybody can relate to, and therefore have a performance that unites the spectators through the sense of them all gaining a personal experience through what I am performing.
“Performing perception is to see what one is looking at, to be absorbed in its aesthetic qualities through empathetic projection”. (Garoian, 2001, 240)
As this quote suggests, it it vital to understand the stimulus of my performance to a point in which I am no longer only seeing what is represented at face value, but research and analyse different perspectives on the heart, and consider why it has been displayed the way it has been.
Could the unlocked box with it’s dark exterior and plush interior represent a body rejecting the heart it needs in order to function? And from this, how can I create a moment between me and the audience in which I can embody this perception?
Works Cited:
- Garoian, C. (2001) Performing the Museum. Studies in Art Education, 42 (3) 240.