Vasinth's Research on Marina Abramovic and Elmgreen & Dragset

MARINA ABRAMOVIC

"Physical and Mental Limits"

As a performance artist, Abramovic attempts to explore the explanation of human endurance through
physical and mental aspects.  She claims that the human body is somehow a wonderful 'gift' that possesses the capabilities of performing almost anything, which inspired her to experiment on the
constraints and limitations of the physical body and the human mind, in which she considers a form of performance art.  Using herself as a medium, most of her experimentation/artwork deals with the psychology, intuition, action/reaction, and the situation of the audience and herself while the performance proceeds.

In her beginning art pieces, such as her 10-phase collection series of "Rhythm", all of her performances investigates through an extreme process.  Variables such as inflicting pain from lacerating, burning, weaponry, etc. are used against her, while the documentation, reactions, and the intensification towards the audience are the piece of the artwork itself.

The Dream House, Tokamachi, Niigata Japan, 2000

Apart from the extreme performances and experimentation, I personally was interested in this particular installation she designed in a classic japanese house. The Dream House was somehow unique compared to other works she performed, in which this artwork mentally challenges the limits of perception of the unconscious, or perhaps the imaginative dreams of the audience.  The installation comprises of recipes and messages on walls in which the audience are engaged to reading then are subjected to record their dreams after their sleep.  I find the text interesting since the messages are embedded to the mind and are synchronized into images, perceptions, and memories, that reminds the audience to picture or question later during the process.  The purpose of this installation was that modern japanese designs tend to become more interested with 'experimenting' living spaces, in this case, is a living space for dream documentation.

As to my understanding towards eroticism, it can be compared that most of her performance art exposes the extreme feeling of intensification, that the performance gradually becomes more vigorous and violent, until it reaches the end, which is the apex of the performance.  Somehow it resembles the similarities of the process of sexual intercourse and orgasms.  I also find it intriguing that all her art is risky, that the end of the performance is uncertain and unrevealed, that it cannot be concluded.

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ELMGREEN & DRAGSET

"Powerless Structures"
Elmgreen and Dragset, unlike Abramovic, illustrates art through installations, use of spaces and architecture, and sculptural design.  Their concepts tend to have a variety, since most artworks are executed through different media and materials.  Some of their artworks involve adopting and extracting art styles from other artists to manifest a new story or definition to it, which to me is considered to be a form of art, not imitating.  However, the most interesting series of work to me was called 'Powerless Structures'.  To further explain this concept, Elmgreen and Dragset have the ability of  utilizing simple icons and objects to convey a powerful message to it.  'Powerless Structures', displays representations of simple everyday objects, installed into certain locations or in certain positions, in which communicates the audience in a different perspective or idea.

Powerless Structures fig. 101, Fourth Plinth Trafalgar Sq.,UK, 2012

One of the most successful 'Powerless Structures' is located on the fourth plinth of Trafalgar Square, which was a site for political and community gatherings.  Elmgreen and Dragset installed a bronze sculpture of a child riding a toy horse.  You might have suggested that a statue of an adult would be more preferable to a site like this but the symbolism of this patriotic figure conveys the dream and ambition of a child is more grand than an adult's physique and strength.  It may seem inappropriate to place a statue at a political conference building but the message is certainly critical to me.

Comparing to eroticism, curiosity is what makes their artworks interesting and mysteriously worth to investigate.  We might wonder why they would install an artwork in this particular site, and what meanings or messages does it change if compared to where the artwork should actually be placed.  The act of alienating an object from its position to somewhere else entirely changes the whole story of the object, but leaves clues to wonder, which intuitively causes us to search or reveal it.