Performing Art

I turned my life into art by walking around my neighborhood for three consecutive hours. I took a normal everyday activity that I do and attempted to turn it into art. I walked around my neighborhood with my boyfriend for about three hours. He took a picture of me on my journey, which is uploaded to my webpage. The art that I tried to create was different than normal everyday art because it was done through an action. I did not produce an object, I created a performance. Everyone outside saw me walking around for hours.

Before reading about performance art, I would not have thought of this experiment as art. Performance art is something very different than the art I am used to seeing and most people associate with art. Through the readings online I learned about performing art and that it is not about the creation of an object, but an expression and performance. According to Wikipedia art can be defined as a product of human activity, made with the intention of stimulating the human senses as well as the human mind; by transmitting emotions and/or ideas. Beyond this description, there is no general agreed-upon definition of art. Art is also able to illustrate abstract thought and its expressions can elicit previously hidden emotions in its audience. Keeping this definition in mind life can be thought of as art when expressing an emotion.

Linda Montano’s excerpt on “Art in Everyday Life” explains how her performing art reflects her life and is considered art. She created the chicken woman which reflected her life, but she would use it during her performances. I think my experiment of walking around the neighborhood is art even though it is something that I do every day. During my walk, the audiences of people also enjoying the nice weather this weekend were observing me. They could see the emotion I was giving off during that third hour when my feet were starting to hurt and I did not want to walk any longer. By my tenth lap they started to wonder why I was walking for so long. Emotion was being expressed as I walked lap after lap. I started out very happy to be outside with a smile on my face, enjoying the nice weather. Then I started to get a little hot and sweat. Slowly my feet started to hurt and pain and exhaustion was conveyed. The expression of emotion is why I think my experiment of walking for three hours in my neighborhood was art.

To me the difference between art and life is how you express it. Art is something that you look deeper into and try to interpret. When I take that walk once around my neighborhood, I am not thinking of my emotions or really appreciating the things around me. But when I walked through my neighborhood for three hours, I was expressing all types of emotions and looking at my everyday activity a lot different than I did in the past. Art is looking at something differently than you would have normally in your everyday life.

Self Portrait Five: Film Stills

The still film that I created is called “It’s For the Best.” This film is based on the creations of Cindy Sherman. There are many qualities that are similar between this film and the creations of Cindy Sherman. The film, “It’s For the Best” addresses issues like femininity, the gaze, and spectatorship. On my e-portfolio page there are five pictures that make up my still film, “It’s For the Best.”

The still film, “It’s For the Best,” starts out with a picture of a girl in a car. The girl looks excited to go to the prep school that her parents are driving her to. The girl is looking out the window looking at the building where she will be living alone without her parents for the first time in her life. This picture is much different than Cindy Sherman’s pictures because the girl is not completing an action. She is just sitting and looking out the window. On the other hand, the picture is similar to Sherman’s shots because it has the girl doing something that she is expected to do by men. Women are not suppose to drive and are often criticized by being bad drivers. Therefore, this picture is full-filling the stereotype that women should not drive and should just watch. In this picture the girl is the one that is the spectator looking at other people out the window.

The second picture in the film still is a picture of a girl reading a book. The girl has been sent to the prep school and is forced to read and learn. She is looking in the book trying to see what career path she wants to take. The girl is indecisive and does not know what to do with her life. This picture is similar to Cindy Sherman’s picture of the girl in the library with the book either being taken out or put back on the shelf. This picture also is similar to the gaze because the girl is doing what is expected of her. She is reading a book and being submissive just sitting down, doing what she is supposed to do.

The third picture in the film is of a firefighter girl entering into a house with a fire in it. After the girl figures out what she wants to be from reading books she decides to be a firefighter because it is a very different role from what is expected of her. The girl tries to be a hero and save lives as a volunteer firefighter by entering into this burning building trying to see if anyone is in the house that may need assistance. This picture is much different from Cindy Sherman’s still films because it has a woman doing something that is not expected of her. In all of Sherman’s still films it has beautiful women completing jobs that are categorized as women’s work. The girl in this picture wants to do something different with her life and decides to be a firefighter, which is predominately a male’s occupation. This picture is displaying femininity as being able to do whatever you put your heart to. A female can do a male’s job and does not have to stick to women’s work like the models do in Sherman’s still films.

The fourth picture is of the girl dressed up in a suit looking in the refrigerator for what she wants to use to make dinner. The girl decides that she does not want to be a firefighter and tries another career in the business world. She takes on a job as a secretary and after work proceeds home to make dinner for herself and her boyfriend. This picture is consistent with Sherman’s work because it shows a woman in a dressy, flattering outfit doing women’s work. The girl gets home after working as a secretary in an office and is expected to make dinner for the man. One of Sherman’s pictures is of a woman in the kitchen making something. Preparing dinner is associated with women doing the cooking and cleaning instead of the man. The girl in the picture is taking part in the gaze by dressing up in tight fitting clothes to do work for men. She is being observed by men for their pleasure because she is dressed up nice in flattering clothes. The girl then goes home and is expected to make dinner for her boyfriend where she is again being observed by the man for his pleasure.

The last picture is the girl looking up in the sky thinking about her accomplishments and graduating from prep school. The girl struggles throughout the film stills to find out what she wants to become. She tries to be a firefighter then she tries to work in the business world. She then decides to finish her schooling and graduates prep school. This picture is different from Sherman’s because it shows the woman as successful with the world ahead of her, ready to accomplish anything. The woman is not bound by men’s ideals of what they should be doing. Here the Irigaryian perspective is accomplished because the woman is successful and breaking through stereotypes and achieving success.

I chose to create this still film because it shows women achieving success. I chose the film title, ”It’s For the Best” because the girl in this film still goes to a prep school even though she will be alone away from her parents for the first time. She struggles to find herself, but still graduates and is ready to accomplish anything she puts her mind to. I chose to create pictures that were similar to Cindy Sherman’s film stills, but different in the sense that the girl overcomes stereotypes and is more than just something to look at.