History of Performance Art
INSTRUCTIONS:
Writers can decide whether they wanted to do a formal analysis, historical/contextual analysis, or an Iconographic Analysis. Please let me know if you need any extra resources to finish this up.
Artist for the topic: Marina Abramovi
Please follow the instruction below for objectives, guidelines, and citation requirements.
Objective:
To delve deeper into the life and work of one performance artist, so as to make original, insightful connections between the artists life/biography and the performance art they create. This is a creative and critical writing assignment, not a school book-report, so avoid a simple list of activities and achievements by the artist. We want a perceptive piece of writing, a cross between an art critic and a therapist, making new and astute observations about the artists issues, inspirations, and contributions.
Guidelines:
1. While you certainly want to give us an overview of their entire body of work, focus on ONE performance that is central in their career for an extended discussion;
2. You must be able to watch video documentation of the performance;
3. To help you organize your thoughts, you can use a typical art historical framework for
analysis. Distinguish between but include these 3 types of analyses:
a. Iconographic Analysis: The content. The actions, gestures, images, symbols, speech, text, etc. that indicate the subject matter, tone, message and meaning of the performance.
b. Formal Analysis: The form. The way the performance is crafted and structured (duration, sequence, movement, props and technology used, color and lighting; performance art techniques like layering, juxtaposition, simultaneity, etc. and traditional performing arts used, i.e. acting, dancing, music.)
c. Historical/Contextual Analysis: When was this performance created (specific year), where, and how does it reflect the times in which it was made?
Required Resources and Cited References:
Your essay should have the following mix of resources, at a bare minimum:
a. 2 Internet articles, essays, dissertations (Search Google Scholar as well, for articles from JStor, etc.)
b. 2 articles specifically from an art or performance magazine, from the library or online. (PAJPerformance Art Journal, Performance Art Magazine, High Performance, BOMB, Performa, etc.)
c. 2 Internet videos (Vimeo, YouTube, etc.)
d. 2 REAL BOOKS from the library, or through an inter-library loan (or buy used on
Amazon!) that deal with your artist. It can be an ebook but it has to be published.
