jasminepeterscofa1002

[jasminepeterscofa1002]

Process and chance, experimentation and expression, movement and gesture, personal responses - it was through this that my final piece was created.

[jasminepeterscofa1002]

The piece is a layering of moments, a representation of process upon process, a portrayal of movement upon movement and meaning upon meaning. 

It is a collaboration of singular responses, and a work that boasts the process and the concept rather than the aesthetic of the final result. 

The piece is the process.

[jasminepeterscofa1002]

Performance is the expression of artists who wish to challenge the viewers' perceptions of art and the limits of those perceptions. Each performer makes his or her own definition of performance in the very manner and process of execution, so that each work becomes an entirely unexpected combination of events. The form allows artists to make a "collage of media," and the means by which they do this are as diverse as the imaginations of the performance artists themselves. Moreover, the expertise, even the virtuosity, of performance artists often lies in their ability to manipulate the unlimited choice of material, much in the same way that an editor pieces together the hundreds of thousands of frames of a movie.

- Roselee Goldberg

[jasminepeterscofa1002]

"They really mark a shift from painting as something that happens on the canvas, to artist's exposing the making of painting." 

- Catherine Wood, on Yves Klein's Anthropometries 

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The body as a language is at once inflexible and too flexible.  Much can be expressed, whether deliberately or not, through the body's behaviour.  Use of the body is often ritualised in an effort to contextualise and more precisely fix its meaning.  

- The Artist's Body. Tracey Warr & Amelia Jones (2000) London, New York : Phaidon Press Ltd

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Our entire culture is based on the representation of the body. Performance doesn't so much annul painting as help out the birth of a new painting based on different explanations and functions of the body in art.

- GINA PANE 

from The Art of Performance; A Critical Anthology. Edited by Gregory Battcock and Robert Nickas.

[jasminepeterscofa1002]

Throughout history artists have drawn, sculpted and painted the human form.  Recent art history, however, reveals a significant shift in artist' perceptions of the body, which has been used not simply as the 'content' of the work, but also as canvas, brush, frame and platform.  Over the course of the last hundred years artists and others have interrogated the way in which the body has been depicted and how it has been conceived.  The idea of the physical and mental self as a stable and finite form has gradually eroded, echoing influential twentieth-century developments in the fields of psychoanalysis, philosophy, anthropology, medicine and science.  Artists have investigated the temporality, contingencyand instability of the body, and have explored the notion that identity is 'acted out' within and beyond cultural boundaries, rather than being an inherent quality.  They have explored the notion of consciousness, reaching to express the self that is invisible, formless and liminal.

- The Artist's Body. Tracey Warr & Amelia Jones (2000) London, New York : Phaidon Press Ltd

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[Performance] really is an attempt at synthesizing communication. It's an attempt at a new communication. But the only people this art exists for are the people who are there. And it's the only time the art exists.

- TERRY FOX

[jasminepeterscofa1002]

Our body is not in space like things; it inhabits or haunts space. It applies itself to space like a hand to an instrument; and when we wish to move about we do not move the body as we move an object. We transport it without instruments as if by magic, since it is ours and because through it we have direct access to space. For us the body is much more than an instrument or a means; it is our expression in the world, the visible form of our intentions. Even our most secret affective movements, those most deeply tied to the humoral infrastructure, help to shape our perception of things. 

—MAURICE MERLEAU-PONTY

[jasminepeterscofa1002]

"The law of chance, which embraces all other laws and is as unfathomable to us as the depths from which all life arises, can only be comprehended by complete surrender to the Unconscious.

Maintain that whoever submits to the law attains perfect life." 

- Hans Arp

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The eighth iteration: Mariah

The eighth and final iteration I love. It shows that the imprint can be minimal, yet still have a impact on the understanding of the process. The similar paint on Mariah's back to the first iteration on Ali's back essentially could have had the same effect, however the personal perception of my process and concept resulted in a minimal, yet beautiful small imprint on the canvas - Mariah's was of contributing to this collaboration.  

[jasminepeterscofa1002]

The seventh iteration: Roanize

It's through the application of paint on the face that Roanize felt she could most literally explore the idea of the Oblique Strategies and it was through her gestural movement and the connection with the canvas that she could experience and portray the conceptual process of chance and creation. 

Her subtle imprints on the canvas brought a balance and harmony between the layers of paint which I found really interesting for such a small surface in which she gesturally explored. 

[jasminepeterscofa1002]

The sixth iteration: Rachel

The left arm; symbolic of the arm Rachel uses to create. Through these iterative processes I am constantly being amazed by the act of creation and response portrayed through my friend's perceptions of my concept. This process has enabled me to expand my understanding of what process means and also has opened me to a position in which I embrace the role of chance in creation, the unexpected; which is essentially what my own conceptual and creative process embodies as well, with the question I always ask myself - how do we create when we have no pre-conceived idea of the end result?

[jasminepeterscofa1002]

The fifth iteration: Milly

The iterative process of "twist the spine" and "a line has two sides" has allowed me to understand the different perspectives in which the individual engages with this idea.

This iteration looks at the body as the line. Milly used one "side" of the line, being her body and the movement she chose to put into this iteration. 

[jasminepeterscofa1002]

The joys of a chalkboard desk. 

[jasminepeterscofa1002]

Our body is not in space like things; it inhabits or haunts space. It applies itself to space like a hand to an instrument; and when we wish to move about we do not move the body as we move an object. We transport it without instruments as if by magic, since it is ours and because through it we have direct access to space. For us the body is much more than an instrument or a means; it is our expression in the world, the visible form of our intentions. Even our most secret affective movements, those most deeply tied to the humoral infrastructure, help to shape our perception of things. —MAURICE MERLEAU-PONT

The Art of Performance: A Critical Anthology.

Edited By: Gregory Battcock and Robert Nickas

[jasminepeterscofa1002]

"Jackson Pollock's radical horizontal positioning of the canvas in the studio changed the relation of the body to the painting: the movement of his body around the flat canvas became an integral part of the work"

“The Artist’s Body” Tracey Warr & Amelia Jones (2000) London, New York : Phaidon Press Ltd

HORIZONTAL POSITIONING OF THE CANVAS - Using the principles of the gestural and performative way that Pollock engaged with the canvas horizontally for my own work. 

It's through the horizontal canvas that the artist can position themselves in a way that sees the work as an extension of the body, and the connection made with the canvas as they use their body gesturally allows the contact made to be more representative of this.