The Point of the Performance?

By: Elizabeth Arakelian

After a long day out in London, a group of friends and I were heading back to our flats via Charing Cross. As we strolled along chatting about our adventures of the day we were taken aback when something in the window of the shop to our left started moving. Two girls were sprawled out on the floor in a layer of chalk dressed in simple and rather dingy black clothing. As we passed the window they had just begun to move, picking themselves off the floor in a slow and spidery fashion.

      We moved closer to the window as other passerby's gathered to see the spectacle as well. What appeared to be two women started to stand up very slowly. Their chalk doused hair hung over their faces, as well as their long and slender extremities. They each seemed to be moving to a different beat despite their slow and steady pace. While one propped herself up on her knees the other one stood. They both began to try to wipe the chalk off their bodies but to no avail. In fact, they seemed to just be wiping more chalk all over themselves. They both had different styles of black garb draped on their bodies, and more black clothing hung on hangers behind them. There were two empty hangers amidst the hangers and one could only assume they were wearing the missing clothing. 

        By the time the two women were standing on their feet in the piles of chalk I happened to notice a framed poster to the left of the window. It read: “Untitled. Live Art Performance (Duration 3 hours)” and then listed the names of the performers. When I showed this to my friends, we all agreed that we would not be standing on the sidewalk for three hours to see these women do... do... do what exactly? In ten minutes they had managed to simply stand up off the floor. What would they accomplish in three hours? The clothes were not particularly catching, so it wasn’t as if these models were acting as real life mannequins showing off the latest fashions. Also, why was this live art performance untitled? And who was the artist? 

       Although this rendition of live art seemed avant-garde, it was ultimately really vague. I came to the conclusion that perhaps these models were bringing life to the clothing that was missing from the hangers, almost serving as a literal personification of the clothing. But this is just my theory. One of my favorite things about any form of art is discussing the motives and inspirations of the artist and seeing if the audience receives this intention or formulates their own interpretation. This is why I enjoy the pre- and post-performance discussions we have in class. However, in this case of performance art I found that the elusive aspects of the performance served only to disorient the viewer rather than draw them in to the experience. Although it was a very unique and interesting experience that I found to be a great form of performance art, I feel that there needed to be more of an explanation for the event and its motivations.