Week 2

Potrc, Marjetica
The untitled performance that Marjetica instructs you on is how to blow away a wall. She states that it is easy, to close your eyes, concentrate, and blow. There doesn't seem to be a real purpose to this performance, and it seems more silly than anything else if you were to take it literally. I think this performance is one that exploits how skeptical we are about certain things if it goes against our logic. Even before you try this performance, you just know that nothing is going to happen and the wall is not going to be blown away. It reminds me of quantum mechanics, which says that although the possibility is unimaginably small, a person could fall right through a wall, like a ghost, without damaging it. We've never experienced it, and the science we learn teaches us that something like that is impossible. Therefore, we don't expect it to happen. But the possibility still exists. So even though we think a wall can't be simply blown away, perhaps there is a possibility it can be, and perhaps we'll be fortunate enough and extremely stunned on one of our tries. Marjetica is an artist whose works are mainly architectural, fused with technology, and frequently deals with elements of nature, such as water, energy and wind.
http://www.potrc.org/projects.htm

Annette Messager tells you to write out your signature in as many ways as possible. Supposedly it reveals your personality and as an artist, it's a crucial part of your artwork. She says that I will be surprised, as well as my friends. This performance was actually a lot harder than I thought. I started out with my normal signature and from there, it took me awhile to conceive new ones. I would have to write slower or else I would just automatically write my normal signature. Basically what I gathered from this exercise is that, although my signature is illegible and many of my friends tell me that it's a terrible signature, it's the most time efficient one. I think it has more character to it than if I were to just write it out in plain, legible cursive. I can't really say I'm surprised by the results, but more irritated by the fact that I had to write out a lot of ugly signatures. And honestly, my friends didn't really care. I didn't expect them to. One of my friends stated, "I would care if you were famous." Messager's work addresses many feminist topics and attempts to break preconceived notions of women. One of her provocative pieces involves her following men on the streets and taking pictures of their crotch, switching up the roles of objectification.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/06/25/arts/messager.php
http://www.artandculture.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/ACLive.woa/wa/artist?id=17