About the Cigarette Piece

I am interested in the paradoxical nature of smoking: an action that disrupts and formulates routine simultaneously, that is pleasant and repulsive, meditative and stress-producing, comforting and destructive. Cigarettes filters which are made out of cotton are tinted as a result of a series of repetitive inhalations by the smoker. In some cases the color of the butts is also determined by their subsistence under different weather conditions. By collecting, slicing, and attaching together the cigarette butts, I gave these disposable devices an unexpected and prolonged life. I created a skin like an animal fur that is the product of different phenomena – including natural production, corporate manufacture and advertisement, personal consumption, and weather conditions. At a first glance or from far away, the skin seems like raw material for the fabrication of luxury items like handbags or shoes, but when examined closely, it is repulsive to sight and smell.

Even though the formal qualities of this material are relevant, the performance aspects involved in the fabrication of it are most important: from the act of smoking to the discarding of the butts, to my collecting them to my assembling them into a skin. The Cigarette Butt Piece is an artifact made of repetitive and automatic actions and its appearance is mostly developed by chance.

Performance Theory, Definition

A rock can perform the act of rolling, breaking, or sitting. Anything that exists is performing as long as its existence is acknowledgeable. The performer can be living or inanimate. A girl can perform the act of breathing, a fox can perform the act of eating, a plant can perform the act of growing, or dying.

Performance Theory

The term performance is hard to define or categorize, but it's broadness is precisely the characteristic that compels certain artists to work within the field. Performance allows for endless possibilities and experimentation and that is why it is not uncommon for performances to be early manifestations of avant-guarde practices. Limitations or conditions to what performance is are often myths that concur as a byproduct of the conventions of theater. In the following list, I will try to unravel some of these myths as I disambiguate the meaning of the term performance and in doing so, I will hopefully also nullify some limitations that are often given to performance art.

1. To perform means to act or to operate in some sort of context. Therefore, virtually any verb can be performed, with the exception of the ontological verbs to be, and to exist. Something that performs must exist in some way or another (concretely or abstractly). To perform is to assert existence.

2. In most cases, two fundamental units are required in the conception of performance: a performer and a spectator. Any relational action that can be deduced from these two units can be considered a performance.

3. The performer and the spectator need not to be separate entities. A performance does not require a spectator separate from the performer because the performer could potentially be a witness of his own action(s). However, a performance must be perceived in order to exist. Once perceived, the performer-audience-action trichotomy is true and therefore the performance is true.

4. A third unit is the author. The author creates or defines the performance.

5. An author can define a performance before or after the action has been accomplished.

6. The role of the spectator is to witness and not necessarily to be entertained. A performance does not need to be stimulating to the author, performer, or spectator.

Conclusion: Any action can be considered a performance and be analyzed as such. If I move my left foot at this very moment, I can easily justify the motion as a performance as one executed by myself for myself. Then I can analyze the motives, achievements, and repercussions (if any) of that performance and its relationship (or lack of relationship) with theater, semiotics, anthropology, art theory, or anything else that I want to talk about.

Definition of Performance:

A performance has two fundamental definitions:

a. It is the process of accomplishing an action: i.e. the tests show that the machines achieved a commendable performance.

b. It is a comprehensive action or a process that is observed under particular conditions. i.e. His performance in the administration will determine the future of the country.

A third definition is the appropriation of the aforementioned conceptions focusing on the relationship between a performer and an audience. Usually taking place in a proscenium-based setting, it is often used in conjunction with theater, music, or dance. i.e. a theater performance, a dance performance, etc.

Performance art is an appropriation of all of the above, often focusing on the visual aspects of the performance and often observed from an art theoretical perspective. Because of the usual and more conventional associations of the term performance with theater, performances of this sort are usually misinterpreted and/or misunderstood.

Speech for Roots. St. Petersburg, Florida. August 28th 2008, 10:15pm.

I want commemorate a performance artist who passed away this January, and I want to talk about one piece in particular that she did, and its conceptual substance. In 1990 Maria Teresa Hincapié brought all of her portable belongings into a gallery space in a big Tula, which is a big fabric bag, and placed them on the floor. Then she started to take the objects from the pile to arrange in a spiral manner around her. She would do this very slowly, playing with the infinite logical possibilities in which the spiral could be arranged. One by one, she organized the objects according to color, shape, purpose, or just plain whim. When she finished placing all of the objects in the spiral, she would pick them back up and start over. The gallery visitors came in and out as Hincapié silently surrounded herself with these lines of everyday objects 12 hours a day for 18 days. This is more than two weeks of strict discipline. But why would someone do that?

When we study performance from an anthropological perspective, we find that humans have an inherent need for ritual. From the beginning of civilizations to modern societies, there are thousands of different manifestations of rituals. There is evidence that In Mesopotamia, before and after the conquest of Babylonia by Alexander the great, there was a costume of bringing food to an anthropomorphic statue that represented the god, in Mexico today, we see a similar costume when in the Day of the Dead, people bring food to the cemetery. American culture has it’s own rituals: We have the most obvious ones, which are the religious kinds and the holidays, but we have other more customary forms like putting gasoline in our cars so that we can drive, or shopping. We have rituals to get up in the morning and we have rituals to go to bed at night. We have rituals at work and for tea… sometimes we go to the beach to feel the breeze and the sand to break away from our daily routine. What makes all of these actions rituals is that they have a purpose of existence. Objects, like rituals, also have purposes. The anthropomorphic statue was to the Mesopotamian people an extension of god, that object had a purpose, and today we have tombstones that serve a purpose: to represent, to commemorate. Every object ever made by a human, was made for a purpose. But what happens when we stop seeing the purpose for those rituals? When we stop seeing the need for those objects? That’s when the ritual becomes routine and the object becomes profane. The ritual and the object become a waste of time.

In my reading of Maria Teresa Hincapié’s performance there are two important factors: The Object and The Ritual.

1^st Factor: The Object: In the action, she was giving each object respect by letting it influence her behavior. In doing this, she was emphasizing how immense of a communication tool an object can be and how emotive it can be. In a society like the one we live in today it seems ridiculous to pay homage to an object because everything seems replaceable, especially everyday objects. Compare that for example, to the care and devotion given to objects in indigenous societies around the world. Hincapié was encouraging the audience to thing about their quotidian objects as important material goods, and not as temporary items of disposable nature.

2^nd Factor: The Ritual: The performance was called Una cosa es una cosa. One Thing is One Thing, which is a title that alludes to time. Is, is a verb, a conjugation of the verb to be. Is, is also an eternal word, one that stays in the present forever. With this piece, in a ritual of arranging and rearranging her everyday, Maria Teresa Hincapié demonstrated how to experience eternity. This piece could be done a million times and every time it would be done differently according to the performer’s mood or instincts. This allows the performer her to get lost in time.

Maria Teresa dedicated her life to encourage people to slow down, to look at things from a different perspective, to observe, to analyze, to listen, to be influenced, to pay attention and to play with reality. Once she said, “I invite us to stop, to transform time into something sacred”. She invites us to be satisfied with what we have and to make the most of it. To live our lives to our fullest, with discipline and with joy.

Exposicion de grado de la Universidad de Antioquia

Ayer fui a la cámara de comercio de Medellín para ver la exposición de grado de algunos estudiantes de la Universidad de Antioquia. Habían bastantes fotografías, varias instalaciones, y algunas pinturas. Devo mencionar dos de las obras que me llamaron la atención.

La primera, titulada “Lapidario II” es una instalación de Orlando Martínez. Se trata de seis rectángulos que cuelgan del techo frente a una pared blanca. Cada rectángulo esta fabricado con un material transparente y tiene impreso un rostro diferente, pero esta cubierto con cera blanca translúcida que no deja distinguir los rasgos de cada persona. Los rectángulos reposan en seis estructuras acrílicas respectivamente, estas estructuras pegadas de la pared sirven como repisas para sostener seis velas que estaban encendidas durante la recepción. Las velas derretían la cera mientras que los presentes miraban, revelando así partes de los rostros que estaban impresos en los rectángulos. Esta instalación tiene connotaciones con la iglesia y con costumbres como la adoración y el luto.

Otra instalación por Olga Lucia Trujillo colgaba del techo en el tercer piso. Una malla de alambre estirada sostenía numerosas patas de gallinas fabricadas con un material que puede ser plastilina. Esta obra da énfasis a la interacción forzada del animal con objetos fabricados por los humanos.

También pone al animal por encima del espectador para que se vea desde abajo (ya que los humanos se ponen por encima de los animales normalmente) pero a la vez, esta obra muestra al pollo como un material comerciable ya que todas las patas están hechas del mismo color y de la misma manera, fabricadas y plásticas. Con esta instalación ingeniosamente titulada A-Pollo, se habla de la visión manipuladora e inhumana del hombre mientras el espectador se siente amenazado al estar bajo tantas gallinas.

Mujeres de Negro

 I saw a cool performance today where this activist group of women called "Mujeres de Negro" laid a huge sheet of green plastic down in the middle of a park and then put soil on it in rows. Then, they planted seeds and placed corn ears on top, then this guy with a suit came and kindof gave them money to get them to throw the corn away and then he became the "proprietary" and made them work for him, brought armed fellows to watch over the women and made them plant non edible plants like palm trees (which they of course just carried from the side), people came and fumigated them later etc... It was mostly acting, but it was very visually oriented. I was excited. I've decided I'm going to make a report on performance art here in Medellín and try to publish it in the US.

Medellín

I am currently in Medellín doing research for my Summer internship with Guillermo Escobar. I want to write an article about performance art in Colombia during my stay but it has been hard to find information about the discipline here. I remember seeing a book with a couple of pieces by young artists at the RISD library, and the book was specifically about the current art scene in Medellín. Tomorrow I'm going to Rionegro to meet Guillermo for the first time, I'm sure he will point me in the right direction.

Egg Piece

I updated my website recently and I added a section just for performance art. The newest performance is called Egg Piece. You can see photos and view a short description by clicking the picture below. There are also a couple of new paintings.