PROJECTION & AUDIO
Rhythm 0 can be experienced seated with headphones. During the experience please consider how you would interact with the objects at your disposal.
When performed live Rhythm O would be experienced on a 2m x 2.6m projection screen with a handheld audio guide. Additionally, the audience would have a table of 72 items at their disposal to use against a mannequin.
This section of my practice responds to the innate sexual and violent connotations that come from using the female body as the site for performance, specifically through Abramović's infamous piece Rhythm 0 (1974). Through the self-objectification of her body, Marina is able to create a commentary on the dynamics of group psychology and the risk surrounding the relinquishing of traditional performer power.
Examples of audience interaction
These experiments of reperforming Rhythm 0 were carried out under covid restrictions including: use of PPE, hand sanitisation, social distancing and each audience pairing live in the same covid tested household.
This first round of experimental reperformance saw the audience members immediately reaching for the use of traditionally painful or destructive items such as the red paint and fork. Additionally, the audience went on to use traditionally pleasurable items (rosemary branch and red lipstick) in a violent manner towards the mannequin. I anticipated this proclivity to brutality due to my choice of using a female-presenting mannequin rather than a live female performer, the inanimate nature of the figure lends itself to the piece's aim of objectifying a female form in order to push audiences to their mental and moral limits. Furthermore, this first experiment revealed an audience dynamic that dominated Abramović's performance of Rhythm 0 in 1974; herd mentality. Towards the end of the piece, you can clearly see one audience member begin to deface the mannequin with dirt which influences their peer to join in their actions. This action mimics the outcome of Abramović's original performance in which audience members became desensitized to the physical and sexual violence they were inflicting due to the influence created within the audience group. However, due to my choice to use a mannequin to denote the female body rather than a live artist my reperformance focuses on the symbolic infliction of pain and pleasure and therefore removes the consequential moral implications of Abramović's original piece.
In this second round of experimental reperformance, it is important to note that the audience participants were in the space to view the first group's interaction with the mannequin and table of objects. Based on their proximity to the first experiment I was predicting the continuation of violence towards the female figure however this pair immediately began to undo the pain previously inflicted. A moment of interaction I found interesting was one member's choice to use a traditionally pleasurable and nourishing item; bread, in an unconventional but still pleasurable way; as a cleaning device for the mannequin. This adaptation of an item's use highlighted to me that the respect given to the figure depended on what was influencing the audience's actions. This was evident as following this cleaning action the pair continued to work together adding items imbued with pleasurable connotations (ribbon, feather, flowers). However ultimately, the pair created what aesthetically resembled a statue or art installation which only furthers the idea of the female figure being reduced to another inanimate object.