OUGD402 - Studio Brief 02 - DanceDanceDance

For this zine I wanted to use myself as the subject of a performance art piece, so I had a friend photograph me in front of a white wall while I danced, focusing specifically on how I moved my body and my limbs. The photographs were taken in several quick bursts. I then closely cropped each one to show specific sections of my body, and edited them so they would appear to replicate the grainy black and white photography that is synonymous with the 1960's and 1970's. The final images are below:

I wanted to annotate the photos in some way, either to describe some aspects of performance art or to detail what I was doing with my body in each frame. I looked into artist's manifestos, particularly those of performance artists, and came across this An Artist's Life Manifesto from world renowned performance artist Marina Abramović. None of the manifestos I looked at linked directly to my work and I couldn't quote them directly, so I wrote my own spoof version of the rules to performance art and being an artists to accompany my images:


An artist should always move all of their limbs

An artist should always move in black and white

Never make eye contact with anyone who doesn't understand your art

An artist should fill the square as often as possible

An artist should always stand in front of white walls

Be aware of your hands

final images and text printed in order onto zine stock