Customer Reviews

Marina Abramovic: The House With the Ocean View

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Marina Abramovic.is an internationally celebrated artist whose genre is confrontational performances where she and her collaborators - nude - would endure excruciatingly long hours of public exposure. Whether standing, sitting or lying down, they wouldn't be allowed to move during the prolonged performances, remaining motionless to the point sometimes of fainting. Some people can appreciate this art form: other people mislabel it porn. What this book adds to the growing library of book on Marina Abramovic is an extended performance in November 2002 when for twelve days the artist lived on three platforms set up in the gallery. For these twelve days she did not speak or eat, but went about whatever came to her mind as though no one was present. The concept was to create a sense of ritual for the everyday routines we all share - sleeping, using the bathroom, thinking, meditating.

Even the camera work used to capture this 12 day experience seems to be in synch with Abramovic's concept of observing the mundane. This very well designed book, with thoughtful and interesting essays by Thomas McEvilley (her most frequent commentator), gallery director Sean Kelly and Chrissie Iles, documents what many curators and critics - and audiences alike - as Abramovic's most significant performance work to date. Would that they could have been present at MOCA's gala where Abramovic created table centerpieces form live models' heads and nude men and women coupling with skeletons. The artist knows how to draw attention - and how to make us re-think beauty! Grady Harp, November 11