The Value of Performance Art

Like many people, I usually approach performance art with, at best, apathy. Similar to contemporary painting, which is often caricatured as simply canvases painting in a solid color or just a dot in the center, the art world has done a good job at distancing itself from anything tangible or easily relatable to a general audience. Three years of art history classes have somewhat numbed me to this argument; I rarely look at art anymore for the purpose of evoking in myself ‘feeling’ or ‘emotion.’ I typically approach any era or genre of art as a lens through which to contextualize or reflect the historical period surrounding it. To this extent, I can understand the backlash to minimalist and performance art considering so much of its importance is its reaction to image theory and art history. Similarly, my reaction to performance art has more often than not been “ok it’s interesting that people are exploring artistic barriers but none of this will stand the test of time.” However, recently I have come across a few pieces that have caught my attention and further pushed by conception of what “art” is. I think the two most exciting pieces I’ve heard of are by Chris Burden and Marina Abramovic and both explore the importance of audience participation and compliance, to the point where they blur the line between sociology experiment and artwork. Chris Burden’s piece “Samson” is part instillation, part performance. Burden, who made a name for himself in the 70s when he had a friend shoot him in the arm for a piece and in the 80s when he had himself crucified to a car, created “Samson” to further understand how far the audience is willing to participate when being directed. “Samson” is a set of beams constructed to fit between the walls of a gallery, connected to a turnstile. Each time a patron of the museum enters the gallery they pass through the turnstile, and every time it is turned the beams are rigged to push outward. Theoretically, if enough people passed through the turnstile, the walls would be pushed to collapse. Considering the museum did not, in fact, collapse, either there were not enough patrons or Burden’s audience made the conscience effort to prevent the demolition. I’m inclined to think that there just were not enough people visiting the museum (surprise surprise). Marina Abramovic did something similar with her performance “Rhythm 0,” in which she placed 72 items on a table, some harmless and others not, and allowed audience members to do whatever they wanted with those items to her while she remained motionless. She said afterward about it:

“I felt really violated: they cut up my clothes, stuck rose thorns in my stomach, one person aimed the gun at my head, and another took it away. It created an aggressive atmosphere. After exactly 6 hours, as planned, I stood up and started walking toward the audience. Everyone ran away, to escape an actual confrontation.”