Hannah Wilke
I am extremely interested in the work of
Hannah Wilke and have researched into her performance style in order to help me
create my work.
Hannah Wilke is a performance artist who
looks at her own image as a starting point for her work. When creating performance
she establishes herself as the artist and the subject.
Wilke is highly interested in photography.
Throughout her process she uses her body, along with photography in order to
document her ideas and performances. Not only this but Wilke explains that the
use of photography is another way for the audience to examine her body.
Wilke’s use of photography interests me and
links directly to my work. Throughout my research process I have used Wilke’s
idea of photography to document some of my work. I believe photography helps
audience members understand what I am exploring in a much clearer way. Not only
this but I am going to adapt Wilke’s idea of photography and use it in my final
performance. This will show not only the research I have done throughout, but I
believe, will help me frame my performance and allow audience members to
examine my body, similar to Wilke.
Wilke’s photography makes her look vulnerable
and as a result helps address her exploration to the audience. I have used this
idea of vulnerability in my photography and also in my own performance so I too
can make a clear message to the audience.
Wilke has created many different
performances throughout her time using her body as a starting point but a few
have really stood out to me. One of her pieces (performed in 1975) is called
‘Hello Boys’. This was a twelve-minute production where she was seen naked
behind a large fish tank as ‘she performed the repertoire of studied erotic
gestures along side rock music’[1].
Wilke has explained that this performance questions the idea of sexual power
and powerlessness and she describes herself as both subject and object
throughout. Wilke explores female sexuality and the male gaze and this links
very specifically with my own work. I am exploring the female body along with
not only the male gaze, but also at how females ‘gaze’. I aim to challenge the
idea of the perfect body just as Wilke challenges female sexuality.
‘Through the Large Glass’ is one of Wilke’s
most successful performances and also my favourite. In this piece she performs
a striptease behind ‘Duchamp’s The Bride Stripped Bare’ by Her Bachelors, Even.
In Wilke’s performance she dresses as a 1970’s fashion icon, she does a series
of poses then strips in a monotone deadpan way. When performing this strip she
is seen ‘through the large glass of the Duchamp’s sculpture’[2].
Throughout this performance Wilke ‘uses her
own image and sexuality to confront the erotic representation of women in art
history and popular culture’[3].
As we can see, Wilke’s work links directly to my own. She confronts the
representation of women using music and this is what I aim to do. Wilke uses a
piece of music and does something with it that is contradictory. I have used
this idea to create part of my performance and believe the contradictory image
along with the song will be a great way in getting my message across to the
audience.
Another artist I have drawn close reference
to is Tehching Hsieh. Although Hsieh’s work does not link as directly to my own
as Wilke’s, some of his ideas have helped me frame my performance.
Tehching Hsieh is a performance artist who ‘makes
art and life simultaneous’[4].
A lot of his performances are durational (usually lasting a year or longer) and
take a lot of dedication and belief to keep them up. One of his performances I
found most interesting took place from 1978 to 1979 in which he locked himself
in solitary confinement. He did not have any contact with the outside world, no
paper, no radio, no television etc. The only contact he had was from his friend
Cheng Wei Kuong who ‘facilitated the piece by taking charge of his food,
clothing and refuse’[5]
Hsieh’s durational work has helped me create one of my research projects called
Plain Jane. Plain Jane was a performance where I did not wear any make up or
figure hugging clothes for a week. I used Hsieh’s idea of art and life as
simultaneous and realised I couldn’t have just done this experiment for a day.
In order for the research to be effective the performance would have to become
part of my life, and this is what I did.
Although he doesn’t explain this directly
Hsieh’s work has a great deal to do with succeeding. Hsieh had to have sheer
determination in order to fulfill these yearlong tasks and this too links with
my Plain Jane performance. Before starting the performance of Plain Jane I was
extremely determined and ‘knew’ I would be able to do it. However this was not
the case. During my performance of Plain Jane there were at least two times
where I failed to follow the exact guidelines. I did not realise the dedication
and determination I would need in order to complete this. Hsieh finished many,
if not all, of his yearlong performances, his success along with my failure has
helped me understand what I want to show to the audience in a clearer way. I
was not as dedicated to the performance as I should have been because I did not
fully believe in what I was doing, unlike Hseih in his performances.
Although his initial experiments are
different from mine I have used the idea behind them in order to research my
own believes and come up with some strong results.
When participating in ‘Plain Jane’ I
originally wanted it to be for research. However, after looking into the work
of Tehching Hsieh I have come to realise these durational experiments can be
the performance themselves. Hsieh’s yearlong experiments were the performance and I am going to use this idea and
incorporate what I did during ‘Plain Jane’ into my performance.
[1] http://www.eai.org/title.htm?id=1149
[accessed 2nd March]
[2] http://www.eai.org/title.htm?id=1787
[accessed 2nd March]
[3] http://www.eai.org/title.htm?id=1787
[accessed 2nd March]
[4] http://www.tehchinghsieh.com/ [accessed 3rd
March]
[5] http://www.tehchinghsieh.com/
[accessed 3rd March]
No comments:
Post a Comment