May 2011
3 posts
Day 61, Portrait 19 (6 min.)
I first learned of Marina Abramovic while studying performance art as an undergraduate at Alfred University with Laurel Jay Carpenter. As part of her teaching, Laurel would sometimes have my classmates and I emulate performances, like Marina and Ulay’s Nightsea Crossing, as a springboard to learning to create and collaborate in our own performance pieces. From this grew a huge appreciation...
Day 61, Portrait 16 (10 min.)
My Moment with Marina Abramovich
The second time I committed to a full day’s wait at the museum, I glanced up from my mobile just in time to watch someone walk away from the chair. As the middle aged woman strutted smugly, with an unforgettable, lifted swaggering of the shoulders, Marina crumbled a little. Cleansing her emotional palate took a little longer than we had been used to seeing. And...
Day 61, Portrait 18 (14 min.)
i feel like the piece started last night when i decided to go to bed to get up early to go to the moma. started having anxiety dreams all night that i’d missed it.got up this morning with singleness of purpose, got to the museum at 9:15, already a cluster of people outside. kept very much to myself, doors opened at 10am and people who had passes/memberships (i had a press pass) rushed to...
November 2010
3 posts
Day 42, Portrait 10
Performance artist Marina Abramovic is sitting in a chair at MoMA every day, from opening to closing, and doing absolutely nothing but staring into the eyes of every visitor who sits in the chair opposite her. She takes no breaks, doesn’t eat or drink, barely moves except to close her eyes and lower her head between visitors, and she’ll perform this act every day the museum is open...
Day 65, Portrait 21 (18 min.)
I was the second to last person of the day. All afternoon, I was anxious that I wouldn’t get to sit at all. But then it was my turn, and I was walking towards her, and I was so excited I could barely keep myself from running to the chair. And when she looked up and met my gaze, my mind just went
THANK YOU, MARINA. THANK YOU, MARINA. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. OH, MY GOD, THANK YOU.
Oh my...
Day 70, Portrait 19 (28 min.)
Marina and Me
This was my own right of passage. I just got married to my work as a performance artist. Marina was my Priestess.
I sat with Marina dressed as a bride the last Saturday of her performance. I waited a total of 21 hours on 3 separate occasions but sat just once, for 30 minutes. On my third attempt I was successful. My girlfriend and I camped out in front of the MoMA, we arrived at 2:15...
October 2010
1 post
Day 72, Portrait 30
Knew Marina’s work and read some of her interviews. She is from the former Yugoslavia country that even does not exist anymore. And there is the connection. I would skip it originally because reminder of the Yugoslavia is often very painful rarely grotesque like thinking about car Yugo. Since Dana my youngest daughter was going over and over to see her I decided to go myself just to...
September 2010
5 posts
Day 52, Portrait 18
mind blank
void of expectations
approach, sit, exhale.
what can i do for you marina?
your sadness overcomes me.
sit. absorb.
you don’t ask me to take it from you,
yet in sitting, i do, just a little.
with each exhale, i hope to make it a little easier.
charred wings. you didn’t know you had them.
trance on coming.
would you like me to leave?
no, not yet you reply.
just little longer...
Day 66, Portrait 23
Both times I was the last one to sit, the first her last 2 minutes or so, the next her last 5 minutes of the day. Neither time was enough to really settle into the feeling of meeting her, but both were enough to feel her. I was nervous, sweaty and shaking, feeling a little faint.
Upon sitting across from Marina I noticed one eye was a different color green than the other, more yellowish and...
Day 22, Portrait 19
17 Minutes*
It’s easier to gaze into a face than into a blank page. In the reflection of another’s image we can always find some affirmation of ourselves. But the simplicity of looking directly into an other is something we don’t allow ourselves. It’s too intense, too intimate. We do it with pets or babies, sometimes with our lovers-rarely elsewhere. Sitting and gazing under the auspices...
Day 33, Portrait 21
I waited in line for four hours to sit with Marina for seven minutes. I did many things during those four hours: stood, sat, read, talked to those around me, but mostly I watched what was going on and thought about what it meant. I watched the sitters look at Marina. I watched Marina look at the sitters. I watched museum visitors watch the sitters and Marina look at each other. I watched the...
Day 48, Portrait 13
“It was more like a conversation of energy rather than of thoughts and ideas. I felt as if I was being transported into another realm.”
It was a familiar scene for me because I’m a painter and for thirty years many of my images have been of two people sitting at a table. My interest is the fleeting moments and the passage of time. So, when I saw Marina sitting there at the table with a person on...
August 2010
6 posts
Day 52, Portrait 19
Blue, Red, White
by Patricia Brace
March 19, 2010
Marina sits inside a nine hundred square foot area with tall spotlights at each of the corners. The electrical cords from the spotlights delineate the perimeter of the square onto the cement floor. The audience observes and waits along the edge of the square. One person at a time sits and stares with Marina. Once the individual is admitted...
Day 62, Portrait 17
On May 4th I moved to NY from Los Angeles (26 years in CA), mostly to find a job, which I found after 2 months. My son graduated from NYU with an art history/photo BFA and on the 5th of May, he took me to MoMA and told me about Marina. I had never heard of her. I looked at her in the Atrium then went to the 6th floor with a friend from CA. He could not understand what the big deal was and...
Day 31, Portrait 14
Dayna Moses, August, 2010
When I first attended Marina Abramovic’s The Artist is Present exhibition at the MoMA, a friend and I stood for a good three hours before recognizing that our chance of sitting with the artist before the museum closed was unlikely. Instead, with one hour left, we carried with us what we’d learned from the three hours of watching and waiting and proceeded upstairs to...
Day 63, Portrait 23
I traveled from Minneapolis to sit in the chair opposite Marina. My daughter lives in Brooklyn and attends Hunter College. I visited her in early May and together we went to the Marina retrospective, where I encountered her work really for the very first time. I was profoundly moved by this work. We did wait in line that day, but had no context for what we were doing, and the last sitter was a...
Day 64, Portrait 10
sitting with Marina….
i went to the museum to sit with Marina and was fortunate to be able to sit, it was a kind of spontaneous decision to go do that!… what was a bit strange is that i was told (we all were that day!) that marina’s back was hurting so we should limit our sittings to as short as possible…. WTF?! you know, when i get into the ‘zone’ i have NO...
Day 72, Portrait 49
By Ann-Sargent Wooster
What made you decide to attempt a sitting? My old boyfriend was much taken with the exhibition and he had sat with Marina twice. There may be a competitiveness between us and I wanted to see what his oh wow experience was. I had seen the show several times and thought of sitting with her but it seemed complicated and open ended. The semester had ended so I decided to try...
July 2010
10 posts
Day 21, Portrait 14
I. Waiting
I was in Midtown early that morning for work; I finished early arrived at MoMA soon after it opened, so there wasn’t a huge line. MoMA was crowded that day; but most of the people turned out to be there for Tim Burton. There were fifteen people in the line; that seemed reasonable, and I had a book, so I joined it. Then a wait: an hour and a half, I think. That wait was...
Day 33, Portrait 10
i dont like carrying stuff,
i sit with You and
the stuff that i carry
gets lighter and lighter
until i feel that I’m floating,
floating into space and time
i’m entering another dimension
it is pure understanding,
pure bliss.
it is being present,
it is looking into your eyes.
it is for ever and ever here and now
it is love in its purest form
it is gold caressing space and time
and...
Day 29, Portrait 9
1st Sitting: Day 29, Portrait 9 - I look rather haughty in this photo, but this is just the way my face looks when it’s relaxed. Looks can be misleading; I was feeling the opposite of haughty. When focused like that, emotions become pure. I went from attempts at telepathic conversation to emotions of love and gratitude to being completely in the moment (even beyond emotions) back to emotions...
Day 59, Portrait 2
It is difficult to describe how I felt, especially because my feelings were new to me. I had never felt such a powerful sense of plenitude, of fullness and presence. I was complete. I sat down on that chair without profound expectations and by looking inside your eyes I found candor and empathy. We connected and you spoke to me as much as I spoke to you. I was moved to tears by our humanity.*
-...
Day 72, Portrait 35
My discovery began with the seeing of a poster of Marina Abramo —I did not even know how to say her name,— vic.
The Artist Is Present
March 14–May 31, 2010
I looked her up on line and the fascination began to grow like the flowers in her hand in the poster I’d seen.
An artist sitting on a chair being present in the gallery to experience presence with the public with...
2 tags
Day 53, Portrait 12
It was not about Marina Abramovic at all. Moisturized beyond belief and restrained by an impractically long white dress —spilling out on the concrete floor of the atrium— she resembled a statue onto which the sitter could manifest his anima. A living, breathing Tony Oursler projection, perhaps. The pallor of my face emerging from my standard head-to-toe black garb was inadvertently the yin to her...
Day 47, Portrait 5
Being present in the moment.
A gap occurs in the stream of thought.
It opens up timelessness.
While sitting with her, my thoughts, notions, values and judgments are removed from my head. At that moment, there is transition, mutation and development for me.
My body is in the present. By making subtle movements and watching her during the almost five hours, I enter into the meditation...
Day 22, Portrait 11
Sitting with Marina on April 2nd was riding through the Balkans on a white horse, flying over China’s Great Wall, looking into light. She was wearing blue.
Sitting with Marina on March 14th was being caressed by pure jasmines and orange blossoms while a red rose opened its petals. She was in white.
Sitting occasionally at the perimeter since Day 13th was a journey into the present, a huge...
Day 61, Portrait 23
so nervous to sit across from you. i didn’t know what i would feel. you lifted your head to make eye contact. i was startled by the kindness i felt from you. you were so encouraging. i was amazed by the task you had devoted yourself to and felt so lucky to be there. you gave your time to me. what an incredible gift. you are a healer, marina, and you have touched me deeply.*
- Sondra
*This...
Day 21, Portrait 6
Just looking ?!?
The external world ceased to exist
Privilege __ Pleasure
Phantasy
Seemingly oxymoronic “silent conversation”
Possibilities __ Limitations
Public Intimacy
Tete-a-tete __ Panim-el-panim
Significance of Numbers - [mystical]
Days 13 21 62
Feeling tremendous reverence for Her...
June 2010
10 posts
Day 62, Portrait 19
Compelling work
Uncomfortable feelings
Questioning why
Searching answers
Telling everyone
Nervous energy
Heart beating
Unclear thoughts
Distractions abandoned
Focus easily
She smiles?
Clear eye
Cloudy eye
Body movement
Signaling me?
Complete calmness
Who’s giving?
Line behind
Must stay
Too long?
Wanting more
Bowed head
Talkative energy
Feeling sated?
Stagger home
...
Day 59, Portrait 4
I didn’t want to sit with Marina. Too gimmicky, too boring, too public. I lay on the bench on the 6th floor. An hour passed. Calm amidst the chaos. Part of something bigger. Joy. I came back. I lay on the bench again. I came back. I sat with Marina.
Sun on my face made me smile. Background receded. Sounds magnified. Time froze. I wanted to help Marina pass the time. Like sitting shiva.*
-...
Day 58, Portrait 14
you know i didn’t really have any expectations going in, but it was a really intense experience. i literally couldn’t think about anything else, being forced to sustain eye contact like that. i was completely present, which is something that never happens. every day constantly thinking of a thousand things, worries, anxieties. it was just a few moments of actual silence. a small...
Day 43, Portrait 5
It was one of the strongest experiences in my life. I could get the same frequency of Marina. My brain and my heart were beating at the same time, together. It was so intense. I could not feel my body. I only had heart and brain and the eye contact with Marina where the energy was going through. Our eyes were like magnetism. I could not take my eyes away. I was full of love.*
- Angela Freiberger,...
Day 21, Portrait 6
There is something in this akin to family love: we have our roles and I am known to you and you are known to me. We rely on so little to get by, Marina, but it takes a great deal to survive. Smile. Swallow. Shift the gaze. It is tiny, difficult, everything. We wet our lips in mirror. We do not cry. Each moment is a meditation, and we hold each other with open palms.*
- Chloë Bass, Artist &...
Day 25, Portrait 5
I have loved Marina’s work for many years. I sat with her three times. Each time, the meanings of the work proliferated.
I became an art object, and an object and subject of perception. I was looked at, looking, and perceived. The piece is about taking responsibility for the act of perception. It is about things seen and not seen, yet that exist between (two) people. It is Art that effects...
Day 67, Portrait 1
it is the beginning of the day. there is time. greetings, thanks and quick sharing of experiences. breathing in and out, time stands still. calm and close, we sit and breathe out thoughts. Time still stands. this seat is to be shared, resist the desire to remain for hours and practice serenity. as time returns, i feel the end and leave quietly, joyful and mindful of my steps. upstairs, i send out...
Day 59, Portrait 7
Sitting with Marina
She sat, waiting for the next
rubbed her eyes
and then she was ready
I sat with no expectations
or true understanding
heart
racing at first
then calmed, then enmeshed
Not spiritual, but spirit
not love, but devoted
not separate, not whole
leaving the place we were
for a moment, or more
our attention was on nothing else
our focus, eye to eye
deep into the soul of...
Me, Me, Me
@BrianFeldman
http://j.mp/momathor2 - Me and Marina Abramović @MuseumModernArt, courtesy @AnalogArtist. #followArt #art #nyc about 20 hours ago
Ended up seeing Marina Abramovic herself, leaving @MuseumModernArt following a gala reception for her and the exhibit. No staring involved. 3:39 AM Jun 2nd
Last night, walked by @MuseumModernArt to see if they had taken down the #MarinaAbramovic “The...
Tweeting About Sitting
Day 68, Portrait 7
@mattraibert
@bonniea Abramović sits for ~90 days. Visitor can sit, make eye contact and meditate. V intense. A week later I still feel her presence. June 2, 2010 2:18:03 PM EDT
It’s me! RT @marzeeya @mattraibert i see you: http://is.gd/cz5z4 June 1, 2010 11:35:01 PM EDT
Follow @parallelarts, she’s live tweeting Abramovi’s last day sitting. May 31,...