FINAL_INTERVENTION- FAARIA

THE VOID

A COLLECTIVE ACT OF HOPE

Hope is something we can hold on to during the uncertainties or emptiness we all go through in the contemporary world. There are so many things that are wrong or unfair around us, but the only thing that keeps us all going is hope. My performance intervention is called "The Void," which is a collective act of hope. This is a public performance piece that invites the audience to interact with it and make it a collective artwork. It is a poster that asks the viewer a simple question of what they would want more of in this world. It is followed by the black circular symbol called the VOID, which represents the state of the world right now and signifies emptiness, loneliness, sadness, or stress. It is like a blank canvas that’s waiting to be filled in and has the potential to be transformed into something beautiful, just like the world we live in. It is a placeholder for all the dreams, hopes, and imagination that we have for the future and our possible utopia.

The audience was then given two simple instructions on the poster—they could write something hopeful and respond to the prompt, followed by adding beautiful stickers to brighten up the void. Next, the void was filled with colorful stickers that represented hope, love, peace, and all the dreams that we share for making this world a better place to live in. “Most of us do want to win; we want to transform the world. That’s why we are artistic activists." Hence, it was transformed into an embodiment of what utopia would look like for people.

I came up with the concept of the Void being inspired by the artist Kazimir Malevich. His work, the Black Square, was inspiring, as it was so simple yet very thought-provoking. It filled me with many questions and interpretations of what significance a simple black square would have. I tried to make it a black circle and call it a "void" and transform it into something beautiful to make it feel hopeful and, of course, UTOPIAN. The next artist who inspired this project is my favorite—Yoko Ono. I like how her performances heavily depend on audience participation and their interpretations, like the Cut Piece, and also her simple instructions. At the end of it, the performance becomes a collective effort and art that belongs to all of us. Moreover, Marina Abramović’s The Artist Is Present inspired the importance of having a human connection and being present, while Shaun Leonardo’s performance taught me how this could be a way where different experiences could come together as one.

Oftentimes, we are so focused and burdened by the things that go wrong in the world that we forget to think about what we want to replace them with. This connects directly to the reading: "In our years of experience, we’ve found that artists and activists tend to focus more on the problems they face and less on the outcomes they desire." And this can be a problem. To overcome this incessant negativity, I shifted the focus onto something positive we could plan or dream about. To make changes, we need a vision or a plan on what we’re supposed to do, so I asked the audience what they would want more of.

It is not easy to imagine what a good future would look like, especially when you are going through so much uncertainty and hatred in the world right now. Naturally, it was a little difficult for the audience to come up with something they’d hope for. This reminded me of a quote from the chapter, “When we asked the group to come up with concrete steps toward their utopia, they were stuck on what to do.” To overcome this, I did not interfere with complex suggestions of what people could write but just let them be and contribute very simple and easy words that came to their minds.

I installed The Void at a bagel shop, which helped me interact with people of all age groups and backgrounds. My poster and stickers quickly grabbed the attention of many people, including kids. People wrote their responses and placed a sticker each to brighten up the void. Many participants wrote responses such as "peace," "love," "kindness," and "hope," accompanied by flower and butterfly stickers, which resonate with the aforementioned words. The Void gradually transformed into something beautiful. This reflects another idea from the readings: "Utopia is not a place we will ever reach, but is rather a space that helps us to think about where we want to go.” My project was not about creating a perfect world but about creating a moment where people could imagine one together. 

Works Cited

Duncombe, Stephen, and Steve Lambert. The Art of Activism: Your All-Purpose Guide to Making the Impossible Possible. OR Books, 2021.

Duncombe, Stephen, and Steve Lambert. “Utopia.” The Art of Activism: Your All-Purpose Guide to Making the Impossible Possible. OR Books, 2021.

Kazimir Malevich. Black Square. 1915.

Yoko Ono. Cut Piece. 1964.

Marina Abramović. The Artist Is Present. 2010.

Shaun Leonardo. “The Freedom to Move.” Art21, 2019.

“Performance Art: An Introduction.” Smarthistory, https://smarthistory.org/performance-art-an-introduction/.