Performance Art is Completely Relevant

About a month ago I went to the MoMa with my mom, mainly to view the widely popular Tim Burton exhibit, but upon entering the museum there was a performance piece taking place entitled "The Artist is Present." Marina Abramovic is a performance artist from Yugoslavia who has conducted a number of performance pieces throughout her life, including one which ignited great controversy in which she placed several items on a table and without resisting, allowed viewers to place the objects on her. Some were interested in the unprovoked and unresisting assault that would take place, and others were after her well being. Like the piece done by Yoko Ono, in which she invited her audience to snip away pieces of her clothing, Abramovic confronts the themes of feminism and dominance through becoming an object for audience interaction. In performance art, the artist is almost always the main conductor of the viewing conditions and set up, but it is the audience that creates the mood and progression of the piece. My first attempt at a performance piece involved a picket style photograph of a young man moshing which I brought to several places on campus, in hopes of attracted a large audience in which to photograph their reactions. I found that viewers were not interested in my project and that gave the piece a whole new direction. From there I worked with the theme of isolation and people ignored by and in society. I think performance art is completely relevant to not only photography but video, film and all forms of art. It evokes an on location reaction and emotions that may not be conveyed through another method.