Rhythm 0, 1974

     Rhythm 0 from 1974 is one of the many performances that Marina or "the grandmother of performance art" has done during her almost 40 year long career. In this performace Marina challenges the audiences' limits and sets 72 objects in front of her. During the 6 hour performance any member of the audience was allowed to come up and use any object however they wanted on Marina. Some examples of the objects were grapes, lipstick, knives, a loaded pistol, needles, and chains. (Bowie, 1) This became one her most famous performances. "Although they start off timidly, by the end of the performance her clothes have been cut off, and she has been sliced with razors" (Bowie) One member of the audience even held the gun to her head and another had to pull it away to avoid it being used on Marina. At the end she walks toward the audience and they all run away. It was a very dangerous performance and showed people will go to extremes if they are allowed.

     In this work, I think Marina is seeing how far people will actually go when they are given the chance to be in control of another persons body. It gives them a sense of power over another individual and many people took that to their own advantage during this performance. She puts her own life at risk in this work. She also makes a reference to womens freedom in this work by letting go of the control she has on her own body during the 6 hour performance.

     Abramovic's works remind me of those of Paul McCarthy. I think this similarity comes to me because like Marina, Paul also tests the emotional limits of the audience. Also it reminds me of the provacativeness of Tracy Emin's because Marina allows the audience to do as they please including removing her clothing and alot of Tracy's works include nudity. I think that Marina had a lot of courage to take this risk especially since the gun had a bullet in it and she could have been killed.

Image:  "Rhythm 0." Marina Abromovic. Web. 23 Nov 2009. www.duke.edu/web/spring99/images/mabram1.gif.

Bowie, Chas. "Marina Abramovic; Thanks, Just Looking." Portland Mercury 02 March 2006: Web.