Continuing of from artists who explore the body in relation to performance and it’s limitations, I have looked at a performance artist, Franko B, who creates work that can make the spectator feel uncomfortable. The one piece of his that sticks in my mind it titled I Miss You (2003) and if you scroll down, you can watch the video.
Franko B violates his own body in this piece, cutting himself and walking along a catwalk bleeding onto the stage. To me the idea that an audience would be prepared to watch this and not offer assistance as a man is bleeding before their eyes was inhumane. However, after watching the performance, I will admit that I was captivated and drawn in. I can only imagine how powerful this feeling is when watching him live.
“I’m essentially a painter who also works in performance. I come from a visual art background and not “live art” or theatre, and this is very important to me as it informs the way my work is read. In the last 20 years or so I have developed ways of working to suit my need at that particular time, in terms of strategy and context, by using, installation, sculpture, video and sound.” (Franko B, 2008)
This highlights why this artist is the person he is today and why he creates the art he does. Not only has he developed a style of working, he also has a cause. His work is also a way for him to explore the politics behind performance. It is evident that this artist uses his life experience as his inspiration, or so I believe.
In a review, Elizabeth Schwyzer analyses his piece:
“Using his body as his canvas and likening his blood to oil paint, the Italian-born artist has honed his ability to evoke deep emotional, psychological, and physiological responses in his viewers. Though he’s best known for bleeding in public, B’s primary interest is in making an immediate impact on his audience.” (Schwyzer, 2007)
In Peter Brook’s The Empty Space, he states that, “I can take any empty space and call it a bare stage. A man walks across this empty space whilst someone else is watching him, and this is all that is needed for an act of theatre to be engaged” (2008, p.11). Brook is arguing here that giving the artist the right space to work in, can make the performance engaging. You tell something that an empty box is theatre and they watch it, contemplate it and wonder what the intention behind it was… When actually It was only ever, just a box.
Work Cited
Brook, Peter (2008) The Empty Space. Penguin Books Ltd: London
Franko B, 2008, The Franko B Archive. Online: http://www.bris.ac.uk/theatrecollection/liveart/liveart_FrankoB.html> (Accessed on 2nd April 2013)
Schwyzer, Elizabeth (2007) Santa Barbara Independent: I Am the Medium Brings Live Art to UCSB, Online: http://www.independent.com/news/2007/oct/25/emi-am-mediumem-brings-live-art-ucsb/(Accessed on 2nd April 2013)