Last night a group of us took an evening trip to Savannah, Georgia to check out some of the de Fine Art exhibitions at SCAD. The two things we got to see, with time in little abundance, was "The Spirituality of Place", featuring artists like Do Ho Suh, Mark Bradford, Andy Goldsworthy, and Yoko Ono, as well as a Marina Abramovic exhibit and lecture.
I must say it was pretty neat to see such a prolific/renowned artist speak in person. I had seen her at the MoMA last fall, as she sat at a table where guests were invited to sit across from her to simply do exactly that. It was an overall mystical experience, which is the persona and essence I took of the woman; so, to see her in person, out of character, if you will, was also somewhat refreshing. As an artist that works in such a heavy way, and by that I mean in terms of concept and content, to realize she was a real person like anyone else, trying to say something, was something intriguing all on its own. I was also interested to find out what the thoughts were beneath that head of thick, flowing, black hair, and the things that fueled her work for years. Not that I can get behind most of what she says and does perhaps, but I definitely took away excellent insight and food for thought from the entire experience. While most artwork may be, indirectly, or by default perhaps, about being human, Abramovic’s work is quite the image of seeking, finding, losing, hurting, living, and dying: a cry of the soul and the effect in which the space around us receives, rejects, and have it penetrate back into our skin.
