marina abramovic is an internationally renowned artist, and has been engaging in performance art for the past 30 years. Abramovic has been in continual pursuit of the physical and mental limits that the human body can endure. Many performances include acts of self-mutilation and destruction -- from consuming drugs, to self-flagellation and cutting. Her work also pushes the limits of what the audience is willing to endure. More than one performance has been halted by members of the audience concerned for the artist’s safety. Photography has played a crucial role in recording these performances, allowing them to be experienced by viewers long after their initial live rendition. Abramovic is not interested in sensationalism, but rather pushing the boundaries of her relationship with her body, the artist’s relationship with her audience, and more broadly, challenging cultural codes of conduct.
The photograph displayed in this exhibition is part of the documentation of the Thomas Lips performance (1975-1997). The performance was re-enacted, in part, during the 1997 Venice Biennale. The original 1975 performance consisted of, in the artist’s own words:
--Brian Twilley, Associate Director, Conner Contemporary Art; M.F.A, Studio
Art, George Washington University
I slowly eat 1 kilo of honey with a silver spoon.
I slowly drink 1 liter of red wine out of a crystal glass.
I break the glass with my right hand.
I cut a five-pointed star on my stomach with a razor blade.
I violently whip myself until I no longer feel any pain.
I lay down on a cross made of ice blocks.
The heat of a suspended heater pointed at my stomach causes the cut star to bleed.
The rest of my body begins to freeze.
I remain on the ice cross for 30 minutes until the public interrupts the piece by removing the ice blocks from underneath me.
Duration: 2 hours, 1975
Krinzinger Gallery, Innsbruck.
Abramovic, Marina, Artist Body: Performances 1969-1998, Charta, 1998: p.99.