A few ideas for performance art pieces inspired by Marina Abramović’s MoMA show
1. “Material Space”
Duration: Varies
I stand in an entirely white room, wearing six or seven layers of thick, handmade clothing of all colors. The audience is kept at something of a distance as I strip every last bit of clothing from my body and throw it all onto the ground. When I am naked, I bury myself in the clothing and invite the audience to take all of it home with them. By the end, I am left wearing only the boots with which I walked the Great Wall of China.
2. “Motion Smell Piece”
Duration: 50s
I enter a room, naked, with a bottle of perfume. I run around the room, somewhat haphazardly. A man enters, also naked, with a bottle of cologne, and runs around with me. We run in circles and spray our scents toward the middle. The smell becomes more and more overpowering until we finally break the bottles over each other’s heads, releasing a violent stench and perhaps sprays of blood onto the audience.
3. “The Artist Will See You Now”
Duration: Varies
I sit in a room, entirely naked, and invite people to come to me and look at me as I sit in a room. Sometimes I will punch one of them. I will kiss exactly three of them.
4. “Body Piece 7”
Duration: 3 days
I wear a plastic shower curtain around my body like a gown or a robe. I undulate to the beat of a single drum, coming from hidden overhead speakers. This goes on for three days. Any food I eat must be provided by audience members. I have no access to toilet facilities. I must dance.
5. “Penis Envy”
Duration: 1 day
I stand, naked, looking down at my body, grunting, as if trying to grow male genitalia. Every hour a male skeleton of a different species of animal is thrust at me, culminating in the 24th hour, in which a human skeleton is dropped from the ceiling onto my head, crushing me.
