Critique Piece Two Marina Abramovic Performance Art Piece PDF

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1. Description: The Other: Rest Energy by Marina Abramović is a breath-taking performance piece that was performed with her partner Ulay. They performed in Amsterdam and the performance duration time was for four minutes. The performance was strange in the way that it was set up; they held a bow and an arrow on the weight of their bodies without any supports to their bodies or any safety methods that will save them in case they make a mistake while doing the performance. The performers were both wearing white tops (shirt) and black bottoms (pants, skirt), they also have identical hair styles. Noticed that they were performing in front of a white background. Also, the color of the bow was gold and the arrow was red; both of the performers wore gloves on the hands that were holding the bow and arrow. All these different elements are put there for a purpose that we’ll uncover and understand in the Analysis and Interpretation 2. Analysis: In this performance, there isn’t much movement involved and their bodies were sturdy during most of the performance. They start by setting their bodies, Marina held the bow with her left hand and Ulay held the arrow with his right arm. The camera was static and didn’t have any moving cameras during the performance. the camera only shows one view from a particular angle where we can see Marina’s face, but we can’t see Ulay’s face, we can only hear his breath. You see tension in holding the arrow and the way their bodies look, both performers are in an uncomfortable form, but Marina seems confident and relaxed. While Ulay was breathing fast and we didn’t see his face, but his breath indicates that he’s not comfortable and is afraid of something. This tension creates makes the viewers keep watching the performance to see if the arrow is

going to hit Marina and kill her or not. The facial expressions on Marina opens up many questions, was she scared? Why did she do this performance? 3. Interpretation: The main idea from this performance is an incarnation of the relationship between Marina and Ulay. The reason why she was taking the risk and putting her life in danger to do this performance because Marina always wants to shush her body to its highest limits and experience where that’s going to take her to. We can understand from the tension on the bow that their relationship is not going well and this tension is bringing them to bad endings that might hurt them forever. The arrow my refer to the actions, words, decision that Ulay might did and he’s afraid of telling her because that will kill her like the arrow will if he let go. Another way interpreting their performance piece, it feels that Marina is giving Ulay all her trust that she wasn’t in charge of the main part of the performance. Ulay’s breathing makes us understand that he’s terrified and scared to let go of the arrow and that explains that trust is not an easy thing to take. 4. Judgement: Overall, the performance had many meanings embedded and every single part of the performance was placed there for a reason. And I think this is a performance that is well organized and both artists did an awesome job. Watching the performance makes the viewers stressed, and this is goo because the artists are delivering the feelings and meanings to the viewers. The artists both took the risk of losing each other for the sake of creating this performance piece. As they put their bodies and lives into something meaningful, I think this is the peak of understanding what art can make you do to deliver your message. The Other: Rest Energy (1980)

ART-131 7/15/2019...