Art Buff

Coming out of a postmodern, conceptual high school art program, I’ve always believed in the communicative powers of conceptual art. As a senior I created a performance art piece for a school art fair, since then I’ve been itching to do it again. Finally another sort of art festival came along last fall, so I put one together.

The piece was entitled “Take” and was inspired by Yoko Ono’s 1960’s “Cut Piece” (http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3dsvy_yoko-ono-cut-piece_shortfilms) and the idea of abusive relationships. I wore two layers of material. The top was bristol board colored with chalk pastel dust displaying words like “loneliness” and “naïveté”. They were meant to symbolize things that the person one dates takes from them initially that benefits them. The lower layer was made from spray painted elastic bandages with words written on them like “direction” and “virginity” - things that are taken from someone in an abusive relationship that harm them. The piece ended when everyone had been removed.