RE-PRESENTATION OF MARINA ABRAMOVIC

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This work is a re-presentation of the performance artist Marina Abramovic. Given the nature of her work, each newspaper depicts one of her performances, if the worst circumstance had happened. Each paper is in the language and location that the work was performed, and filled with other cultural references from the time and place as well. The four performances represented are Rhythm 0, Rhythm 2, Rhythm 5, and Rhythm 10. In Rhythm 10, Abramović adapts the Slavic knife game, called “five finger fillet” in which the player places their palm facing down on the table, then proceeds to attempt to stab a knife back and forth between their fingers at an increasing speed. The game held a real risk of bloodshed and serious injury. In Rhythm 5, Abramović constructed a five-pointed communist star from wood and wood shavings, hence the title Rhythm 5. She then soaked the star in 100 liters of petrol. After setting fire to it, Abramović ceremoniously paced in a crucifixion pose, around the burning star. In Rhythm 2, performed at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb in October, 1974, Abramović created a performance that promoted a planned loss of control. For this performance Abramović took medications typically used for patients of catatonia and schizophrenia and filmed the results in front of an audience. In Rhythm 0, Abramović used this performance to challenge the division between performer and the passive viewer, by placing the power in the hands of the audience. On one of the gallery walls Abramović posted a label on which she stated, “I am the object. During this period I take full responsibility.” For the arbitrarily defined six-hour duration of this performance, from 8pm to 2am, Abramović sacrificed her body as an object to the whims of an increasingly aggressive audience. All performances, equally dangerous and news-worthy, are represented in this series of mock newspapers. 

 
 
 
Rhythm 10, inkjet on newsprint,12 in x 22 in x 1/2 in, 2017.

Rhythm 10, inkjet on newsprint,12 in x 22 in x 1/2 in, 2017.

 
Rhythm 0, inkjet on newsprint,12 in x 22 in x 1/2 in, 2017.

Rhythm 0, inkjet on newsprint,12 in x 22 in x 1/2 in, 2017.

 
Rhythm 2, inkjet on newsprint,12 in x 22 in x 1/2 in, 2017.

Rhythm 2, inkjet on newsprint,12 in x 22 in x 1/2 in, 2017.

 
Rhythm 5, inkjet on newsprint,12 in x 22 in x 1/2 in, 2017.

Rhythm 5, inkjet on newsprint,12 in x 22 in x 1/2 in, 2017.