THE ABSENCE OF PRESENCE ( 1st Draft of Essay )

THE ABSENCE OF PRESENCE

DIFFERENT DIMENSIONS OF PERFORMANCE

“Performance is the Art form which most fully understands the generative possibilities of disappearance. Defined by its ephemeral nature, it can’t be documented; when it is, it ceases to be performance Art and becomes a photo/video” (1).

The Roman author Pliny, in his work ‘Natural History’, has described a beautiful way of how painting might have been originated – It was born when a Corinthian maid traced the outline of her sleeping lover’ shadow on the wall on the night before his departure for battle. This illustrates subtly the deep human need, and also one of the basic reasons Art is made - to keep frozen a particular moment or make a person’s presence immortal. This is also demonstrated in the earliest records of Art in cave paintings. Even the social systems of marriage and inheritance cater to this need of keeping one’s legacy, one’s ‘presence’ alive.

Whether it is painting, Sculpture, architecture or any other form of Art that is tangible and ‘object’ oriented, this need is somehow met. They all hold within them that one moment of time frozen forever (seen through different eyes).  And though it is an object, ‘…It says something than the mere thing itself is, allo agoreue. The work makes public something other than itself; it manifests something other; it is an allegory’. (2)

With performance art, however, it is a completely different scenario.  It raises three different perspectives. 

Firstly, there is no ‘object’ or ‘thing’ which is made or created as art. There is no proof of something being frozen in time. The body becomes the Art, and the ‘art’ exists as long as the body is in the state of performance. It is ephemeral. The body becomes the symbol, the idea, and the ‘thing’ that floats in time and space (usually identified by rhythm, music, sound or silence (ex-John Cage)).

The Art exists as long as the artist exists on stage (or on the stage of the world) There is no trace left for eternity.

Secondly, it raises the question of how one can, in such a transient medium, draw the line between an illusion, a disillusion, or a warped reality on a completely different dimension. Its transience itself can be an illusionistic quality, unless one is convinced of eternity as an illusion.

Broadly speaking, Art becomes a strong, realistic foothold for a mind that perceives the world as an illusion, or it becomes a comforting illusion for a mind that perceives everything with its veil of banality. Realistic, Surrealistic, Metaphorical, poetic, Grotesque, etc are all the evidence of the innumerable perceptions.

“The real is positioned both before and after its representation becomes a moment of the reproduction and consolidation of the real” (3).

 But with performance Art, real/ illusion can be said to exist simultaneously.

The performer and his physical presence are real, but the identity they don can be an illusion. “Performance Artists are not actors. But they are acting being themselves – performance self”. So even in the non-existence of another character, the performer is clothed with another layer of himself.

He can become a representation of whole groups of identities.

And lastly, in performance Art, the journey of the impulse is almost nonexistent. The idea may have been worked beforehand, but the impulse for movement, for defining space or creating space through the body is spontaneous in performance/dance. Since there is no time to sieve it through, how much can a body in performance actually carry forth? Can a performing body lie to itself? Can it afford not to be honest?

These three layers – making a seemingly transient record; defining/dealing with real/representation; and being unguarded in the artistic expression, which are also the main concerns of my studio practice – are all to an extent demonstrated in contemporary performance artist Marina Abramovich’s  piece “The Artist is Present’.

In my reading of the work (of which I have seen the video document and not the actual performance), the artist is ‘present’, sitting on a chair. She is not another persona or a character; she is not illustrating any particular identity. Infact, even her body is not camouflaged with movements or actions. She is just herself, in a very regular human position of being seated on a chair. This is probably the simplest form of what ‘real’ might be.

One by one, the audience sits in front of her. They look into each other’s eyes, and that is the most ‘performance’ that happens. There is no barrier of stage between the artist and the viewer; they both are completely visible to each other, physically as well as emotionally. Some people cry, some are transformed into a meditative state and seem to leave with a heavy heart, some feel uncomfortable and make an abrupt exit, and some seem to not be affected in anyway. Here the artist is leaving back an emotional trace, which is different for every viewer.  (A perfect example of the Rasa theory of Indian Theatre). The artist remains static, almost like a live painting, and is able to look at the viewers and receive the different perceptions that she seems to instigate. She seems to be completely defenseless in her connection to the viewers.

In contrast, another way of showing different possibilities of presence/absence is through works which are audience interactive. For example, in Reto Pulfer’s large scale installation (ex – the Intensification room), the work comes alive with the presence and participation of the audience in a direct manner, and not just in a passive manner (seeing).

In contrast to performance art, when we take the field of dance in the conventional setting of the stage where the movement vocabulary is codified and stylized and the characters and narratives are all expected and repeated through centuries, the idea of honesty or being truthful again takes a different dimension. Where one can’t create movements according to their personal impulses, this unpretentiousness can come forth through their exploration of the characters, to embody the character, and not just be a representation of it. It addresses the ‘intangible’ and ‘invisible’ part of performance (or any art form for that matter) – the emotional and the intellectual side, when the dancer ‘becomes’ the character. Both the dancer and the character are ‘present’ simultaneously.

In some rare occasions, this line between the real and representation/illusion is sometimes so blurred that it becomes almost non-existent, and the results can be disastrous. There is a famous tale in South India that says that during one of the folk performances of ‘Yakshagana’ (A folk dance-drama form which has very elaborate and heavy gestures and costumes) in a village; the performers were enacting the story of the demon Hiranyakashipu being killed by Narasimha, an incarnation of God Vishnu. The person who was doing the role of Narasimha become so completely involved, so completely identified with the character, that his supposed ‘enactment’ of rage went beyond his control and the performance ended on a very tragic note when he killed the dancer doing the role of the demon. The audience, instead of reacting with horror, was actually in complete awe, and fell at the feet of the actor who had forgotten he was a representation. This is either a blatantly honest illusion on the part of both the actor and the audience, or this is the epitome of warped reality.

In the context of the real world, the meaning of adopting ‘personas’ takes on a whole new dimension. Aren’t we all just acting out the past again and again? Isn’t everyone’s lives almost similarly demarcated with social/educational/economic systems?

As Judith Butler says: “Gender identity is a performative accomplishment compelled by social sanction and taboo” (4).

Expanding on this, we are all putting on gender/racial/cultural/social personas or constantly changing our personas to suit the systems and blend with it.

“A man may have a sense of his presence in the world as a real, alive, whole, and in a temporal sense, a continuous person. As such, he can live out in the world and meet others: a world and others experienced as equally real, whole, alive and continuous. Such a basically ontologically secure person will encounter all the hazards of life, social, ethical, spiritual, biological, from a centrally firm sense of his own and other people’s reality and identity” (5)

In my studio work, which navigates between 3 main mediums - dance/performance, paintings/drawings, and writing, these ponderings are addressed in various ways. Sometimes they become the starting point of a series, sometimes the concept around which the work is built, and sometimes they just leave as unanswered questions (does Art need to answer every question?).

In my visual diaries, and ‘stream of consciousness’ writing exercises, which I maintain as consistently as possible, I try to rid myself of all preconditioned notions of what it should be, what colors, mediums, and subject matter I should use, It is challenging at first, but as time progresses it becomes a spontaneous expression of my impulse to create.

This impulse is what interests and guides me the most. The ‘idea’ is no longer of much significance, for it is interesting to see where the impulse leads me, where the path of complete chance ends at. They are almost like the improvisations used in contemporary dance practices; here they are visual and word improvisations. 

The performative ‘action’ during painting is very essential to me; though the action is invisible after the work is completed and only its traces and proof remain. Which lead me to work on large scale visual improvisations often including objects. (Ex – ‘An afternoon at the window’ is a mixed media drawing, with objects including an umbrella, a chair, and yarn). They satisfy my need for ‘presence’ of something ‘tangible’, and in blurring the distinction between real and representation; at the same time raising questions as to what makes real real and what does not.

My most recent work is a performance piece called ‘UNDISSOLVED’ (Which began as a solo a few months back). The theme is derived from the classic fairy tale ‘the Sleeping Beauty’, more specifically from the character of the witch with the spindle, who is the reason for the princess’s sleep.

I see this character as someone existing on a threshold between life and death, between real and unreal. She is like the door that can either open or remain closed. Being precariously balanced on this bridge between the white and the black so to speak symbolically, it has characters that live in that imaginary liquid world. Characters that do not know they exist, do not realize the existence of the others around them, and neither belong to this world and nor not belong. Belonging to an imaginary emotional world, their physical presence also becomes an illusion.

The character of the witch is not ‘present, is not physically embodied by a performer, though she is metaphorically present as the controller of this world of seemingly mindless characters. Is physical absence an illusion??
A group piece involving 8 performers, it has movements developed through various improvisation exercises. It is not a time –bound piece, and we move in solos, duets, and groups, creating a surreal feel.

This piece perhaps addresses most of my theoretical enquiries and philosophical doubts, though it is difficult to analyze objectively to what extent they do so, and if it is done so effectively. Dealing with presence and absence (Of physical body/proof, of real/unreal, and of an honest expression) in my works will also hopefully address them theoretically in an effective manner.

“ … Here, no here makes sense… Presence and absence battle at the core of its every word, with absence winning out.” (6)

NOTES/ REFERANCE LIST

(1)    ‘Unmarked’ – The Politics Of Performance – Peggy Phelan

(2)    ‘Poetry, Language, and Thought’ – Martin Heidegger; Translated by Albert Hofstadter

(3)    ‘Force of Fantasy’ – Judith Butler; quoted in unmarked-The politics of performance’ – Peggy Phelan

(4)    ‘Performative Acts and Gender Constitution : An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory’ – Judith Butler

(5)    ‘The Divided Self’ – R D Laing; Quoted in Conceptual Art – Tony Godfrey

(6)    ‘E.J. la Demeure et le livre’, Mercure de France – Gabriel Bounoure – Quoted in ‘The Book of Margins – Edmund Jabes, Translated by Rosmarie Waldrop.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

(1)    ‘The Empty Space’ – Peter Brook

(2)    ‘The Courage To Be Alone’ – Lorand Hegyi

(3)    ‘Tracing Shadows – Reflections on the Origins of Painting’ – (Essay) – Hagi Kenaan – Internet Resource

(4)    ‘Telling Stories – Countering Narrative in Art, Theory and Film ‘ – Jane Tormey and Gillian Whiteley

Radhika SrinivasaPrabhu

MA Fine Art (FT)

Chelsea College of Art and Design