PROJECT 3
BODY AS SCULPTURE
OBJECTIVES
​
Perform a sculpture with your body
using a 'score' and document it.
Eleanor Antin, 'Carving: A Traditional Sculpture' (detail), 1972
​
For this 'traditional sculpture', between 15 July and 21 August 1972 Antin reduced her food intake. Each morning, save for one day when she was travelling, she was photographed naked in the same four stances. Documented in the round, as if a figurative sculpture, her body is recorded being carved into a shape conforming to classical sculptural ideals.
Carey Young, Body Techniques (after Parallel Stress, Dennis Oppenheim,1970), 2007
Heather Cassils, BECOMING AN IMAGE, 2015
Janine Antoni, Loving Care, 1993
Lukas Avendaño, Buscando a Bruno
Your sculpture does not need to
“make sense.”
Serene B, Live Performance from closing reception of Fabrica Mundi, 2019
Serene B, The Medical Babylon Complex
Your sculpture doesn’t need a narrative structure.
You don’t need to add extra music or audio if you choose to make a video. It’s OK to let the sounds that surround you inform the video that the viewer experiences.
Most Importantly:
Be gentle to yourself. No self-harm. And, feel safe to explore your body on your own terms if you so choose.
You don’t need to add extra music or audio if you choose to make a video. It’s OK to let the sounds that surround you inform the video that the viewer experiences.
Kazuo Ohno, Butoh Dance
Think about:
​
The Artist and Viewer Relationship
​
Art is a verb that creates a conversation between the artist and the viewer.​
​
How can this influence your performance?
Yoko Ono, Cut Piece, 2003
Marina Abramović, The Artist is Present
​Space and Context You Perform In
You are activating your subjective context relative to the objective context of the space that you are in.
​
How does this change or add to the meaning?
Laura Aguilar, Grounded #114, 2006-2007
For “The Great White Way,” Pope.L donned a Superman costume and gardening gloves, and began crawling all twenty-two miles from the Battery to his mother’s home, in the Bronx.
Dani Kwan, Paper People, 2021
Resist the urge to create images or videos in ways that are “normal” and “accepted” in social media, Instagram, TikTok...etc.
See if you can subvert, question, and/or critique the conventions of what a proper “selfie” or a “get ready with me” video of the “highest caliber (ie. good taste)” is “supposed” to be like. Where did your current conventions come from??
Dani Kwan, All Eyes On Me, 2021
Exercise to get you going...​
-
Make a long list of verbs.
-
Make a long list of nouns.
-
Make a long list of adjectives.
​
Push yourself. Fill an entire page, two pages, or three pages.
If you think you're done, keep going.
​
If you can't think, look around you. Sit outside and watch what people are doing, wearing, and interacting with.
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
To continue at home...​
​
-
Carefully go through the lists and choose one verb, one noun, and one adjective. Conflicting words might be just as interesting as words that “make sense” together.
-
On your own terms, gather some materials that you think are informed by those words.
-
Point the camera at yourself and record yourself activating those words with your body and those materials.
-
Document your activation with a photo, a series of photos, or a 2-minute video.
DUE TUESDAY (4/25)
Upload your projects to this google drive, clearly labeled with your name. Please create a folder for yourself if you have multiple images.
​
No need to submit on Canvas. I will use the google drive to grade.