I created and recorded a series of “tumbling” performances in a workshop with Marina Abramovic in 1998. They spoof 1970s video art by appropriating some of their signifiers: repetition,pushing the body to the limits (Abramovic, Burden, Vienese Actionism).
The one signifier I alter is the costume. Instead of being nude I am dressed in a “little black dress”, a symbol of the failure of performance art to ultimately have penetrated the artworld as a non-consummable, and within its historicty -- the need for contemporary video performanceto have Hollywood-size budgets eg. Mathew Barney, Shirin Neshat, Bill Viola. I am a clown attempting to re-create the un-recreatable --apparently missing this point -- and doing it all in my fashionable little black dress.
In “Tumble #13” the camera is focused on 1/2 of an empty room where thewall meets the floor in a corner. I stand against the wall facing out,slide down the wall and fall on the floor, landing in a different position each time. I do this for one hour. The hour is taped without interruption and then put on a loop to play continuously.
The one signifier I alter is the costume. Instead of being nude I am dressed in a “little black dress”, a symbol of the failure of performance art to ultimately have penetrated the artworld as a non-consummable, and within its historicty -- the need for contemporary video performanceto have Hollywood-size budgets eg. Mathew Barney, Shirin Neshat, Bill Viola. I am a clown attempting to re-create the un-recreatable --apparently missing this point -- and doing it all in my fashionable little black dress.
In “Tumble #13” the camera is focused on 1/2 of an empty room where thewall meets the floor in a corner. I stand against the wall facing out,slide down the wall and fall on the floor, landing in a different position each time. I do this for one hour. The hour is taped without interruption and then put on a loop to play continuously.