Ideas around ‘blood bag’

Talking to Jeff – instead of using the bag as simply a container of a material, allow the liquid to come out of the bag. This was something I had considered anyway as when I filled the bag with water it stayed in the bag for around 3 minutes before it slowly started draining out through some of the sewn edges.

When I use the bag in the performance I’ll be using a larger amount of liquid (real blood) meaning even though I have sealed the edges with layers of glue it will still probably seep out. This merges with the idea of the ‘unwanted baggage’ being disposed of slowly without me being aware of it – the subconscious ideas I’ve presented in my work.

Make other accessories/items of clothing using the transparent material. Fill with either blood or another material that can be worn and in the process of filming slowly drain through the edges of the material.

Blood to me is a symbolic material due to past experiences. This could lead onto me using other materials and objects to fill the transparent clothing/accessories. What else is a strong material that has relevance to my past?

The idea of making the bag myself (clothing too) as its something I’ve created and built up as part of me. Its made by me rather than something i have chosen to purchase/issues I have chosen to bring upon myself.

experiment 1 – jelly

Using a different form of liquid (from blood) inside the bag to get an image of how the red will contrast inside the transparent material. This was a mixture of jelly and food colouring a friend had finished using in her own work and I used as a quick experiment.

After being in the bag a few minutes it started to drain out of the edges.

Transparent PVC

Large bag made using transparent PVC material and sewn together both by hand and by using a sewing machine.

Shape of the bag chosen by my own bag I use, a traditional large tote shape.

Super glue used in two layers on the inside along where I have stitched the bag to help keep it waterproof.

Blood bag

Bag idea involving blood – carrying around emotional baggage

Representation of carrying around my subconscious feelings and vulnerabilities that I wasn’t aware of – making it a casual and normal thing to be filmed walking around with the bag.

Remove it from the idea of ritualistic methods. More so how its connected to my own experiences and emotions.

Subconscious therapy

‘With pain I established the contact’ Marina Abramovic

‘I believe that universal knowledge is all around us. It’s only a question of how we can achieve that kind of understanding. Many people have experienced moments when something sin their brain says ‘oh my god, I understand now’ and those moments feel so rare, but the knowledge is always out for the taking. You only need to tune out the noise around you. In order to do this you have to exhaust your own system of thinking, and your own energy. thats extremely important. You must be really exhausted, to the point where there’s nothing left: where you’re so tired that you can’t take it anymore. When your brain is so tried of working it can no longer think – thats the moment when liquid knowledge can enter. that knowledge has been very hard for me to win, but i have it. and the only way to win it is by never, under any circumstance giving up.’

“the creative powers of the subconscious”

95 percent of brain activity is beyond our conscious awareness. Numerous cognitive neuroscientists have conducted studies that have revealed that only 5% of our cognitive activities (decisions, emotions, actions, behaviour) is conscious whereas the remaining 95% is generated in a non-conscious manner.

Look into what I’ve explored consciously and subconsciously in my interests – is this even possible? Do I want to discover my subconscious if so?

Bringing my suppressed feelings to life – yet expressing them in a disguised way. Idea of using photographic images and carving into them. Large images of past work?

Figure out my suppressed emotions in some of my work such as my interest in blood and gore

 

 

Self

Strip work back to myself and my original interests – why I’m interested in certain materials and themes.

Find the connections between my work and my experiences? THE SUBCONSCIOUS

The vulnerabilities of the human body in general – how we can be vulnerable to physical pain. Looking into (mainly female) artists who perform endurance and pain related art pieces which resemble strength yet at the same time purification of their bodies. For example, Gina Pane used her body and the sufferance she endured as a way of representing spirituality, carrying a deep emotional and symbolic charge. She laid down the human body’s fragilities and used them to signify her strength as she endured these rituals.

Reason I’m interested in physical torture as a form of signifying the strength of women – relates back to personal reasons that I’ve been unconscious of for a long time. Buried down and revealed through my interests without me realising. My way of dealing with suppressed feelings?

Marina Abramovic memoir – ‘ my work and my life are so connected. and throughout my career I’ve produced works whose unconscious meaning only become clear to me over time.’

Recently I have discovered how linked all my work is with myself. I’ve never really considered it being to do with me so much, and when asked why I’m interested in what I work with I haven’t been able to answer. I’m currently analysing my work from the past year and realised how much my work is linked to my own life, experiences, fascinations and feeling. Do I want to share this with the audience? Is that creating a new level of vulnerability?

I subconsciously explore my own vulnerability in my work as a female and a 20yr old. I have been saying I’m exploring how we are vulnerable as humans but am realising I have been looking at ways of displaying my own fears and vulnerability.

Where shall I move on from here? Do i keep displaying my insecurities and personal experiences in the hidden way, now I’ve realised it might have been my way of dealing with things do I continue expressing myself in this way?

• secretive unknowingness
• experiences shared but in a way where the audience is questioning

(page 136) Marina talking about a performance where herself and Ulay performed for 2 hour sat opposite each other with no movement ‘Gold found by the artists’

‘Everything was fine for the first 3 hours. then the big muscles in out legs, thighs and calves began to cramp, and our shoulders and necks began to throb with pain. yet our commitment to remaining still meant that any kind of movement to relieve the pain was impossible.

The experience is indescribable. The pain is a huge obstacle. It comes like a storm. Your brain tells you, well i can move if i really have to. but if you don’t move, if you have the will power to make no compromise of concession, the pain becomes so intense that you think you’ll lose consciousness. and its at that moment – and only at that moment – that the pain disappears.‘

Rituality

Gina Pane in relation to sadism – ‘extreme art experiences’. Rituality of each act where the artists played a sort of sacrificial comedy using their bodies.

Using her own flesh and blood, Pane laid down the fragilities; undressing, hitting, hurting, dirtying her own body, she was able to show a sense of danger. her use of the human body as an artistic tool reveals vulnerability both in an actual and literal sense.

‘A personal response to a situation’ – Ana Mendieta. Her words regarding the rape scene piece of work – her response to violence against women.

Sterlarc suspension

A Brief History of Sacrifice

http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/blogs/performance-art-101-rebellion-destruction-ritual-and-taboo

Click to access Goldberg-The-Body-Ritual.pdf

I’m working with the venerability of the body and our personal limits. Using endurance/humiliation/pain as an experiment to explore the physical and mental capabilities of ourselves. Strength in women in particular. I’m working with superstition and ritualistic luck and using blood in my work as a symbolic material – representing death and violence yet at the same time a life force/often used in religious rituals

Looking at artists such as Marina Abramovic, Ana Mendieta, Gina Pane, Carolee Schneemann, Franko B, Viennese activists such as Hermann Nitsch (more so for the ritualistic materials and performances)

Rituals more in relation to what we do for safety and comfort within the body, attempts to protect ourselves more on a mental level. How we change the
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Endurance tasks to express the strength go the female body in particular.

staging pleasure and discomfort together.

sacrificing part of yourself to display new life and strength