LIVE ART PERFORMANCE
by
Sharmila Nezovic & Gemma Garcia
Opening night-
Art exhibition-
Eleven faces of Frida Kahlo
BIA
Frida Kahlo stands for many things – a sensual artist, from a deeply religious society, a person with great passion herself who managed to evoke poetic expression through paint, and one who especially lived and worked in the world of polarities. She was a Mexican artist known for her unflinching self-portraits.
In this Performance Art event, two contemporary female artists explore some of these as externalised imaginings – such as, the expressive urge, the perfume of life (‘sweetness & stench’), the coloured ‘ground’ versus the blank canvas - encompassing the undercurrents that made up Frida’s life….
Here then, the gallery is overrun by an endless red ribbon walk, temporarily scattered with small paint pots. On Opening night, Gallery goers, are interrupted in their mingling & viewing, and invited to freeze where they are, no matter which side of the central wall they remain…
A brief performance (approx. 10 mins long) manifests quickly, along the red ribbon ‘catwalk’ journey, & where the audience’s experience will need to flip alternately between seeing and hearing, between noticing & feeling.
Sharmila & Gemma’s premise will explore layers of meaning around ‘the artist as transformer, as well as provocateur’.
This post-performance Installation invites contemplation of the concept of presence – yours the viewer’s attendance and attention, as well as that of the artist-producers.
It may bring up questions such as, what actions must the artists have undergone to produce this installation? What might be the layers of meaning that relate to Frida/ to all the artists in this exhibition/ to myself as visitor? Might this detritus from the performance evoke not only Frida the artist –but a suggestive vacancy as well? What aspects of Fida’s story moves us personally - yet do we not also possibly bring our own experiences and meanings into the mix from our own lives, as well?
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