Your first instinct, when viewing Marina Abramovic’s provocative performance art, will be to avert your eyes.
I can hear astute exploring the mystery readers saying: “Not me, I won’t look away!”
But before you bet the ranch, consider this:
In a retrospective of her work at New York’s Museum of Modern Art in 2010, WSJ reports visitors were asked to brush up against nude performance artists in close quarters. Meanwhile, in MoMa’s grand atrium, Marina sat perfectly still, staring straight into the eyes of visitors who lined up to sit across from her.
Her next exhibition will focus on sensory deprivation as an antidote to the fast pace of modern life. Isn’t it interesting that she wants to slow down too?
Marina wants to wake up her audience and if this means they are uncomfortable, this doesn’t concern her. I imagine she often murmurs “Don’t Look Away” when circulating among her fans.
The question posed (November 4 post), “when would you say Don’t Look Away” elicited no answers.
This wasn’t a total surprise; it was a delicate question. The surprise came this week when a situation showed me how difficult and how rewarding it is to say: Don’t Look Away.
When Feedburner stats said exploring the mystery had 0 subscribers and I couldn’t find your names on a subscriber list, I needed help.
In effect I was saying, “I’m in trouble here. Don’t Look Away!”
And you didn’t. As your “got it’s” came into my inbox, I understood how important Don’t Look Away can be. And I understood how risky it feels to say, Don’t Look Away.
Do you look away when you need to keep looking? Do you know what it feels not to be seen?
Thanks for exploring the mystery and not looking away.
– Nicky Mendenhall
Image above on Pacific Beach this fall. My favorite restaurant, The Green Flash, was named for what happened when the sun set. In order to see it, you couldn’t look away! FYI – the restaurant closed and I was very sad. The end of an era.