Performance art challenges accepted conventions and traditional forms of visual art such as painting and sculpture. Sometimes performance art focuses on the human body as it's canvas through movement, dance, or actions and activity not usually associated with art. It is normally presented live by the artist and their collaborators and sometimes with hired performers. Recently, performance art is becoming more and more unusual as the bounds of conventionality are stretched further and further to shock audiences and enable new artists to make a name for themselves. Here is 8 pieces of crazy and unconventional performance art.
1 Marina Abramovic's Russian Roulette with Knives
HIDDEN MOTHER - Rhythm 10 (The Star), by Marina Abramovic from Hidden Mother on Vimeo.
Marina Abramovic describes the piece's process, "I lay a sheet of white paper on the floor. I lay twenty knives of different shapes and sizes on the floor. I place two cassette recorders with microphones on the floor. I switch on the first cassette recorder. I take the knife and plunge it, as fast as I can, into the flesh between the outstretched fingers of my left hand. After each cut, I change to a different knife. Once all the knives (all the rhythms) have been used, I rewind the tape. I listen to the recording of the first performance. I concentrate. I repeat the first part of the performance. I pick up the knives in the same sequence, adhere to the same rhythm and cut myself in the same places. In this performance, the mistakes of the past and those of the present are synchronous. I rewind the same tape and listen to the dual rhythm of the knives. I leave." The music is added to create a build-up of suspense and anticipation as each mistake with the knife cuts Abramovic, which she repeats purposely the second time around.
2 Model Rides Bus Naked for Art Performance
A model wearing nothing but bold messages written in black ink on her skin rides a the bus naked to inspire people to think of the origin of life and the universe. Instead of apparel, the words "shirt," "bra," and "jacket" are written where the the articles of clothing are usually worn.
3 Under Water Paintings From The Black Sea
Russian artist Denis Lotarev paints underwater at depths of 30 feet in the Red and Black seas. It is often dangerous due to strong currents and poisonous fish. "It just so happened that I have two favorite things in life. (The first one is) diving and swimming: I love the sea and I've loved the sea since childhood. And my second favourite thing is painting. I have an academic education from the Repin Institute of Fine Arts. And somehow, going on frequent swims, I always had the thought - how could I draw this, capture this, because there is such beauty that you see - no camera can capture it," said Lotarev when asked how he came up with the idea.
4 Woman Gave Birth In Art Gallery For Public Performance
Broadcasted live online and open to the public, a woman gives birth in a space set up just for the event in an art gallery. She believes that human life is the most profound work of art and her life is an ongoing performance, so she chose to exhibit the process of birthing a child from October 8 of 2011 to October 25th. She equates it to a tribal experience in indigenous times when birth was celebrated as a community.
5 Artist Injects Herself With Horse Blood
In a piece titled, "May the Horse Live in Me," artist Marion Laval-Jeantet prepare her body for months to accept plasma obtained from horse blood. The piece is said to explore the boundaries between what is animal and what is human. In an interview on the piece for Centre Press Marion states she felt distinctively horsey after the injection, ""I had the feeling of being superhuman. I was not normal in my body. I was hyper, sensitive, hypernerveuse, very fearful. Emotionalism of herbivore. I could not sleep. I felt like being possibly a little horse."
6 Man Allows Himself to be Shot for Performance Art
In the 70's, an artist by the name of Chris Burden allows himself to be shot in the arm by a 22 Rifle at a distance of 15 feet, in a piece titled "Shoot."
7 Dutch Artist Turns Dead Cat Into Remote Controlled Helicopter
Dutch artist Bart Jansen loved his cat so much he decided never to part with him. The cat, named Orville Wright after the famous aviator, was stuffed by a taxidermist and then turned into flying cat named the "Orvillecopter." The artist teamed up with radio-controlled helicopter expert Arjen Beltman to make the cat fly for the first time. Beltman designed a custom mechanism and attached it to the stuffed cat turning the critter into half cat, half machine.
8 Real-Life Sleeping Beauty Signs Contract To Marry The Man Who Wakes Her With A Kiss
An installation at the National Art Museum of Ukraine exhibits artist Taras Polataiko's real-life Sleeping Beauty where a young girl has signed a contract to marry, out of hundreds of men, the one who manages to rouse her with a kiss. The Prince Charmings had to be at least 18 years old and also sign a contract. One creepy guy who showed up for the installation said, “I wanted to sense her essence. I didn’t even want to see her. I wanted to feel that girl. I wanted to feel her with my heart, but I didn’t feel anything.” In an unexpected twist ending, instead of awaking to a prince, she awoke to a princess charming! Unfortunately, the Ukraine does not allow same-sex marriage so to complete the contract they would have to be married in a different country.
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