Thursday a.m. Idea Post 04/16

Using artist research at last minute.

Sunday as I was becoming increasingly more worried about the presentation of my performance work for both exhibition panel and the juror, I decided to fall back on some previous performance artists I have looked at in the past few weeks. In my last working critique with the class I got a good amount of feedback concerning the one image, the “relic” image, which I decided to place with each series. After that critique I re-shot a few of the “relic” images but then became lost when figuring out how I could incorporate them with the performance series it belonged to. Some suggestions I got during the critique actually involved having the “relic” being present with the work at the show opposed to having it documented as a photograph. So Sunday night, the night before I took all of my images to the printer, I found myself looking at how performance artists show their work and how they essentially sell their work. Because performance work is definitely a “in the moment” genre of art, it can be a great challenge to exhibit the work to its fullest. One artist, Aine Phillips from Ireland, had her website set up with multiple images from the set, the performance itself, and also after images for many of her performances. I really enjoyed getting to see small bits and pieces of these quite elaborate performances that some time took place in multiple locations. Artists who I am very fond of, like Ana Mendieta, almost uses that sort of “relic” idea in a similar sense. For example her ‘Silhueta’ from 1975 were photographs of the imprints her body made in multiple different landscapes. Her images were in a sense the aftermath, the leftovers or result of what had just taken place.

Because of their influence on my work, and me I decided to definitely stick with the “relic” images and build them up. The series in themselves make quite a statement on their own. So for these images that will be incorporated with the series will be framed and matted and seen as a glorious keepsake of what the viewer is seeing in front of them.