PERFORMANCE ART INTERVENTION - Veronica Gomez

 

• Instruction piece : 

Hug yourself for 2 min

Francisco de Goya, The Third of May 1808, 1814

• Spanish artist Francisco Goya created The Disasters of War, a powerful series of prints. These works show the horrors of war, focusing on the suffering of people during the Napoleonic invasion of Spain in the early 1800s. Goya used these images to highlight the cruelty and violence of war, making a strong statement against human suffering and injustice.

Yoko Ono, Cut Piece 1964

• Yoko Ono created a performance art piece called Cut Piece in 1964. In this work, she sat on stage while the audience was invited to cut pieces of her clothing with scissors. The piece is about vulnerability, trust, and how people treat others. It also highlights issues like violence and power. Yoko Ono’s Cut Piece conveys a powerful message about vulnerability, trust, and the dynamics of power and control. By inviting the audience to cut pieces of her clothing, Ono highlighted societal issues such as the objectification of women, the loss of autonomy, and the ease with which acts of violence can escalate. The performance also placed the audience in a position of power, forcing them to reflect on their role in perpetuating or challenging harmful behaviors. This connects to Invisible Walls by addressing personal and societal barriers. Both works explore inner struggles and external stereotypes—Ono by surrendering control to the audience, and Invisible Walls by inviting the audience to confront shared obstacles. In both performances, the audience is not just a spectator but an active participant, contributing to the narrative and grappling with the message. The act of breaking through the wall in Invisible Walls parallels the themes in Cut Piece, symbolizing the courage to dismantle barriers and question societal norms. Both pieces challenge individuals to reflect on their role in creating or breaking these invisible constraints.

• “The Culture we produce necessarily arises from the everyday culture in which we live. This is why it’s so important to be self-aware of our own cultures that influence our creations, and why our murals and performances will be more æffective when the ideals and imagery they depict are generated by the community itself, using signs, symbols, stories, and values that are true to the people that comprise it.” (pg. 136)

  - This means that the art and culture we create are influenced by the culture we experience daily. It’s important to understand our own culture because it shapes our ideas and creativity. Art, like murals or performances, is more meaningful when it reflects the values, symbols, and stories of the community it represents.

• “And a great deal of art is politically conservative, reflecting and expressing the worldviews of those who are best placed, politically and economically, to patronize the arts and determine standards of competence and beauty. This is true for the European landscape painting that represented and reinforced values of private property for the landowners of early capitalism, and it is true for the contemporary art that represents and celebrates neoliberal ideals of unrestrained individualism.” (pg. 137)

  - This suggests that much of art supports the beliefs and interests of wealthy or powerful people, like how European landscape paintings once glorified land ownership during capitalism. Today, some modern art supports ideas of extreme individualism tied to capitalism, showing how art often reflects the values of those in power.

• “What we can do is create forms of culture that express the values we want to see reproduced, instead of passively accepting those of the dominant culture.” ( pg. 166)

  - Instead of accepting the dominant culture as it is, we can create art and culture that show the values and changes we want to see in the world. This helps challenge harmful norms and promote better ideas.

• “We can use Culture to influence culture and in doing so provide a glimpse of what a new culture might look like, building a new common sense nor a new world.” (pg. 167)

  - This means we can use art and cultural creations to inspire and shape how people think, providing a vision for a better society. By doing this, we can plant the seeds for a new way of thinking and living.