This is a performance piece done by Yoko Ono.
In this performance/happening Ono has asked members of the audience to cut away at her clothing as she passively sits motionless on stage.
Wikipedia says,
"Ono was an explorer of conceptual art and performance art. An example of her performance art, is "Cut Piece" (this instance of performance art is also known as a happening), performed in 1964 at the Sogetsu Art Center in Tokyo. Cut Piece had one destructive verb as its instruction: “Cut.” Ono executed the performance in Tokyo by walking on stage and casually kneeling on the floor in a draped garment. Audience members were requested to come on stage and begin cutting until she was naked. Cut Piece was one of Ono’s many opportunities to outwardly communicate her internal suffering through her art. Ono had originally been exposed to Jean-Paul Sartre’s theories of existentialism in college, and in order to appease her own human suffering, Ono enlisted her viewers to complete her works of art in order to complete her identity as well. Besides a commentary on identity, Cut Piece was a commentary on the need for social unity and love. It was also a piece that touched on issues of gender and sexism as well as the greater, universal affliction of human suffering and loneliness. Ono performed this piece again in London and other venues, garnering drastically different attention depending on the audience. In Japan, the audience was shy and cautious. In London, the audience participators became zealous to get a piece of her clothing and became violent to the point where she had to be protected by security."
I particularly like this piece because of the call to audience agency.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUJ8MhXTwtI
This piece is a video performance by Adrian Piper.
Piper's video is simple and very much focused on her. She confront the viewer, in a calm and serious tone, about her racial identity by starting with the statement, "I'm black..."
What I like about this video is not only the confrontational relationship the artist has with the viewers both visually and in her subject matter, but I also find it humorous and witty.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zSA9Rm2PZA
This work is by Martha Rosler.
Semiotics of the Kitchen, is formatted like a cooking show that explains the function of the tools of the kitchen.
Wiki says,
"
Semiotics of the Kitchen is a feminist parody video and performance piece released in 1975 by Martha Rosler. The video, which runs six minutes, is considered a critique of the commodified versions of traditional women's roles in modern society.
Featuring Rosler as a generic cooking show host, the camera observes as she presents an array of kitchen hand utensils, many of them outdated or strange, and, after identifying them, demonstrates unproductive, sometimes, violent, uses for each. It uses a largely static camera and a plain set, allowing the viewer to focus more on Rosler's performance and adding a primitive quality.
Letter by letter, Rosler navigates a culinary lexicon, using a different kitchen implement for each step along the way. She begins with an apron, which she ties around her waist, and, with deapan humor, journeys through the alphabet, until the last few letters. For these, U, V, W, X,Y, and Z. the implements are dispensed with and the woman's gestures and body become a signal system themselves. The Z replicates the mark of Zorro, a filmic reference, and at the end of the entire work the artist offers a shrug, somehow defusing the negative reading of the parody. The focus on linguistics and words is important, since Rosler intended the video to challenge "the familiar system of everyday kitchen meanings -- the securely understood signs of domestic industry and food production."[1]"
I enjoy this piece for its humor and wit and its complexity in dealing with issues of gender roles, commodfication and language.
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