FINAL PERFORMANCE ACT
My performance art activism project, titled "Freeze and Leave," is based on public participation and taking a moment to look at our surroundings to see what we may not notice in our everyday lives. My project addresses "utopia" through the topics of social alienation and human connection. This performance involves the participation of the entire class to follow a set script and curate ideas individually for each student. A world I imagined for this project originated from the idea of breaking down the invisible walls we build around ourselves in public spaces. To achieve that, I wanted the class to share pieces of themselves with other people by slowing down and taking the time to communicate. I wanted this project to involve getting people out of their comfort zone slightly, whether through talking to someone or deciding what objects to use in the act.
The main goal is for people to look at the habits and social rules we follow in our day-to-day lives and to see the details we might usually miss. Even when we aren't doing anything, like standing around in a crowd, we are still performing under a cultural script. Even when the performers (the students) are close to each other, they are isolated. They are physically together, but mentally apart, mimicking the real world through individual actions. By leaving pieces behind after the performance, the space feels like a remnant of an event that has passed.
In my act, everyone in the class stands/sits in the center of a space doing different actions. No talking, no touching, and no eye contact. Performers freeze in "everyday" poses (ex., sitting in a chair, reading a book, writing in a notebook, or typing on their phones; it can be anything). Something that the individual feels represents themselves. They have the choice to choose any pose with any object they may want. They remain frozen for 30 seconds in silence (timed). After the allotted time, everyone should say something to another person. It could be a compliment or just a passing comment about anything. You could speak to multiple people or just one person. Once people say what they want to say, they walk away normally (back to their seats), making sure to leave a piece of them behind in the space, such as something on their person or a prop they were using.
I had a few of my friends perform the project with me in a smaller setting. They chose poses to maintain for 30 seconds, then chose objects to leave behind. It went well. It's simple and inclusive, maybe even a little bit awkward, but it worked. It promoted conversation, even if just a little bit, and allowed us to understand how even just a 5-second back-and-forth conversation can change someone's day.
This project fits into my professional aspirations and my portfolio, as I feel it helps to connect a room together and design a system with rules to acquire audience reactions. It helps me practice my communication in social interactions, something I need to improve on, to become more well-rounded.
Artist Inspirations (4):
Yoko Ono - Her many performances involving an audience inspired me to try and create my own. Specifically, I liked her "cut piece" performance and seeing how an audience reacts to a certain set of rules.
Olafur Eliasson - A lot of his work inspired my thought process, like his installation artworks. The world is constantly changing and can be seen from multiple perspectives. It becomes prevalent to communicate with others to understand those gaps and build real connections between people.
Pablo Picasso - I was inspired by the depictions in his paintings and his outlook on the world. He was trying to show how he interpreted the world. His work confronted the public and showed that everyone has a piece of themselves within that they may want to express to the world.
Gustave Courbet - Courbet was someone who saw the world exactly as it was rather than "beautifying" it as many artists did, depicting people in a raw and rough manner. His work inspired me, as rather than the main idea being on how people look on the outside, the true message comes from the communication.
Quotes: (4):
1. "One of the great powers of art is to shift our perspective: to get us to look at what we’ve looked at a hundred times over in a new way."
I was inspired by this quote, as everyone goes through different experiences and has different beliefs and ideas. I interpreted this quote to mean that art can be viewed in multiple ways through different lenses. Rather than experiencing the same thing every day, getting used to it, and forgetting meaning, my performance art is meant for people to look at things from different angles to curate different responses and emotions.
2. "Culture is the operating system of humanity."
Culture takes up a big portion of my project. This quote means that culture is the explanation for why and how we operate the way we do. Our habits and decisions in our daily lives are shaped and built upon values and stories. Culture comes from the things we engage in every day without thinking, which I wanted to address directly.
3. "It's only by understanding popular culture that we can understand the needs and desires that motivate people and be able to speak their languages."
Popular culture dictates what people care about and, in turn, shows how to influence people emotionally. By paying attention to what people crave or fear, it is possible to learn about people more and connect with them in a deeper sense. In my project, everyone taking the time to speak with someone, if only briefly, connects them in ways that could've never been.
4. "That project is entitled “You Walk”: as guests pass through this hallway, they encounter different text prompts that invite them to slow down."
I took this quote for my project to make people slow down and take in their surroundings. Leonardo makes people physically slow down in the hallway, so for my project, using text, I can make people stop and actually think about the space they are in and actions they do instead of just rushing through actions without thinking.
Resources (5):
Chapter 9 UTOPIA, from The Art of Activism, Your All-Purpose Guide to Making the Impossible Possible by Steve Duncombe and Steve Lambert
Chapter 4 CULTURE, from The Art of Activism, Your All-Purpose Guide to Making the Impossible Possible by Steve Duncombe and Steve Lambert
Hispanic Executive | Interview with Shaun Leonardo - Performance, Pedagogy, and Philosophy
Yoko Ono’s Art of Defiance | The New Yorker
An Introduction to Activist Art | The Collector | by Stefanie Graf
Slideshow Link (Script for the Class):
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ieK7-41hfRYqPAoR_02_lRuy4Ied6RfrbCTQ8PMrwkE/edit?usp=sharing
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