• Home
  • Listen
    • List of Compositions >
      • Opera/Music Drama/Film >
        • 1619 Opera Cycle >
          • About 1619 Opera Cycle >
            • About Non-opera compositions for 1619 cycle
          • So Far Behind Now Because of Then
          • Till Paths Be Wrought Through Wilds
          • Opera #3
          • Opera #4
        • Four Freedoms >
          • About Four Freedoms
        • The Grey Land >
          • About The Grey Land >
            • The Grey Land NOTES & INFO
            • The Grey Land WORDS
            • The Grey Land SESSION PHOTOS
            • The Grey Land PRESS_REVIEWS
        • The Loves of Pharaoh >
          • About The Loves of Pharaoh
      • Large Ensembles (18+) >
        • Changing Same
        • The Grey Land
        • The Loves of Pharaoh
        • Vipassana
      • Choir >
        • Everywhere in the World, prologue from Four Freedoms
        • Everywhere in the World, epilogue from Four Freedoms
        • The People Get Tired of Dying from The Grey Land
        • The Undisappeared
        • We Couldn't Wait Anymore from Four Freedoms
        • We Have it in Our Power from To Begin the World Over Again
      • Orchestra >
        • We Hold These Truths to Be Self-Evident
        • Pharaoh Scrolls
        • The Loves of Pharaoh
        • Vipassana
        • The Polar Express
      • Band >
        • Climb
        • The Gates of the Wonder-World Open
        • The Long Now
        • Quiet Earth
      • Solo & Chamber Music >
        • The Poet Dreams of the Mountain
        • Bushwhack
        • Limn
        • Fire Quiet
        • Erelong
        • Lovivance
        • Never Has Been Yet
        • Shibboleths
        • Scission
        • Es Stehen Unbeweglich
        • Serendipity
        • The Red Book
        • Pharaoh Scrolls
        • To Begin The World Over Again
        • Unlimited
        • The Distance of the Moon
        • 110 Percent
        • Memory of Red Orange Laid Out in Still Waves
        • Liquid Timepieces
        • Beautiful Thing
        • Usher (Variations)
        • Kelip-Kelip
        • Rihla
        • Race
        • The Lady Who Sailed the Soul
        • Seeker
        • The Eloquent Light
        • Still Love Remains
        • The Spell of a Vanishing Loveliness
        • Tapestry
        • The Sun at Midnight
        • Passion of a Quiet Flower
        • Adrian
        • Sweetness
        • The Polar Express (Chamber)
        • Quantum Fluctuations
        • Keyser Söze
        • Penumbra
        • A Tear of the Clouds
        • Flying
        • Madame Press Never Had to Holler at Morty
        • To Kyoto
        • Lost in the Stars
        • rothko
        • The Smoke that Thunders
        • Urban Sketches
      • Music for Dance
      • Electronic Music >
        • Ernie's Secret Life
        • The Bellagio Fountain Has Been Known To Make Me Cry
      • Miscellaneous >
        • To the Land Touching the Heavens
        • Seeker
        • Into all the Valleys Evening Journeys
    • Recordings
  • Feel
    • The Numinous Experience
    • Photos
    • Videos
  • Think
    • About Joe
    • About Numinous
    • Numinous at 25 >
      • 1: 2000
      • 2: 2001
      • 3: 2002
      • 4: 2003
      • 5: 2004
      • 6: 2005
      • 7: 2006
      • 8: 2007
      • 9: 2008
      • 10: 2009
  • Know
    • News
    • Press
    • The Numinosum Blog
  • Contact
  Numinous The Music of Joseph C. Phillips Jr.

The Numinosum Blog

The Long Present

5/13/2010

0 Comments

 
Picture
About a month ago I was talking with Edisa Weeks about our upcoming Thomas Paine project performance in June, and she mentioned that she had just come back from MOMA's retrospective of performance artist Marina Abramovic. I had never heard of her before Edisa, and from her description I thought it would be something interesting. So I read around the 'nets about it (and some New Yorker's penchant for copping a feel of the art) and checked out the MOMA site on the retrospective, The Artist is Present. I found the interviews with Marina intriguing in documenting her growth and process of her performance art (a medium of which I'm not always on-board with).

Beyond the videos and the live nude models, I think the most fascinating part of the exhibit is the work The Artist is Present, where Marina sits in silence, from museum opening until closing (without break) in a chair opposite anyone that wants to sit with her. On the surface it seems rather un-art-like and pedestrian; what's so special about someone sitting in a chair? However, what I love is the mystery of it all. She is the unknowable watcher that is watched watching. What is she thinking or feeling? what is the other person thinking or feeling? It seems to me much like the Vipassana mediation, where you are alone with yourself mediating for extended periods. In that sense then, The Artist is Present is nothing new. However, where mediation is between you and yourself, here the meditation, while taking place individually, is also BETWEEN the two protagonists in the chairs. The art/performance itself is just a medium to express a connectivity toward our fellow beings. There's no denying that SOMETHING is happening between Marina and the other person, some communication is silently transmitted. And that's where I find it quite beautiful and moving. Just as a baby's movement or your dog's look can mean something, so to can two people sitting across from each other, have meaningful 'dialogue' with one another. I love this blog about it: Marian Abramovic Made Me Cry, which is actually funny and touching at the same time. 

Now I have not had the time to actually go to MOMA to see The Artist is Present firsthand (one thing I wonder is: who actually can spend the $20 admission and have the time to stand in line all day for a chance to sit with her?) but I have sometimes been checking out the Flickr photo stream (the Daily Beast said, all of those photos on Flickr are like a G-rated "still-life ChatRoulette.") as well as the performance streamed live during museum hours (although understandably, yet very annoyingly, for only a few seconds at a time before having to refresh the screen). And now, of course, something that may have had egalitarian ambitions (anyone with the hours to spend waiting in line can sit in front of her) has now, sadly and quite naturally, become a thang to do and be seen (check out the Marina Abramovic Flickr stream or MOMA's, with all of the celebs, and the regular folks too) but that doesn't take away my fascination with The Artist is Present.

POSTED BY NUMINOUS AT 11:19 PM 
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    The Numinosum

    To all things that create a sense of wonder and beauty that inspires and enlightens.

    numinousmusic.com

    Archives

    February 2025
    December 2021
    October 2021
    October 2020
    May 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    October 2016
    August 2016
    May 2015
    August 2014
    December 2013
    September 2013
    May 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010
    January 2010
    December 2009
    November 2009
    October 2009
    September 2009
    August 2009
    July 2009
    June 2009
    May 2009
    April 2009

    Categories

    All
    Album Review
    Analysis
    BAM
    Book Review
    Changing Same
    Composer Salon
    Concert Announcement
    Concert Review
    Ecstatic Music Festival
    Film
    Inside Vipassana
    Interlake HS
    Mixed Music
    Music Announcement
    New Amsterdam Records
    Next Wave Festival
    Opinion
    Performance Review
    Press
    Program Notes
    PS 321
    Pulse
    Remembrances
    The Loves Of Pharaoh
    The Numinous
    To Begin The World Over Again (Thomas Paine Project)
    Truth
    Video
    Vipassana

    RSS Feed

Thanks and credit to all the original photos on this website to: David Andrako, Concrete Temple Theatre, Marcy Begian, Mark Elzey, Ed Lefkowicz, Donald Martinez, Kimberly McCollum, Geoff Ogle, Joseph C. Phillips Jr., Daniel Wolf-courtesy of Roulette, Andrew Robertson, Viscena Photography, Jennifer Kang, Carolyn Wolf, Mark Elzey, Karen Wise, Numinosito. The Numinous Changing Same album design artwork by DM Stith. The Numinous The Grey Land album design and artwork by Brock Lefferts. Contact for photo credit and information on specific images.