Week 10: Apply and Reflect

 

Vito Acconci, Still from Three Adoption Studies, 1970
Source


    Art has an emotional and physical connection to all viewers. Art can make a person feel sad, happy, angry, and several other emotions. The physical movement of art can make the viewers revolt in disgust or raise their heartbeat in anticipation. Through these emotions and physical changes, each viewer carries a biased view towards the art, and the art captures a moment in time for the viewer. The term phenomenology labels this kind of connections viewers have with art, and it is constantly reciprocated between the viewer and the art piece. The reciprocal action between art and its viewer was introduced by Merleau- Ponty, a philosopher that coined the term phenomenology. Amelia Jones wrote an essay, “Meaning, Identity, Embodiment: The Use of Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenology in Art History” continued to portray art in this way. This can easily be seen with art that was painted, drawn, or just an inanimate object. Since the emotional ties are unique to each individual.

    Performance art may have more of a phenomenology connection than its counterparts of inanimate objects. To watch a person perform and see the facial expressions, their body movement has more of an implication of what the viewer should feel. Humans have a natural connection to one another. When a conversation is started, that can be considered a performance art. The artist is welcoming the viewer in hopes that they leave touched.  During the 1960s through the 70s there was introduction to body art and reinforced phenomenology. “Merleau-Ponty’s work emerged briefly into public discussion about body art and Minimalism. Two movements pivoting around the reassertion of body/space relations, during this period.” 1 Vito Acconci was one of the artist to take on phenomenology in his art of performance during his reign on the 1970s. 

    Vito Acconci art has the appeal of a conversation between artist, art, and the viewer. Some can look at art and forget about the artist especially when a person does not know who the artist is, aside from the name on the card. But the artist is in front of viewer and sticking their whole hand in their mouth like Acconci in his Three Adoption Studies, the artist can not be ignored. The emotional connection is not in the control of the artist however, the viewer is responsible for the reaction but the emotional reaction will be linked with the artist for all eternity.


Citation

Amelia Jones, "Meaning, Identity, Embodiment: The Uses of Merleau-Ponty's Phenomenology in Art History," in Art and Thought, 2003


Comments

  1. River MartinezNovember 1, 2020 at 4:12 PM

    In the connection of a persons reaction to art is I agree that there is no control of the viewer's thoughts. Phenomenology to me means the experiences we get from the senses. Do you think that this is the connection that phenomenology has between the viewer and Art. When I look up Phenomenology is says it is a study of consciousness and the objects of direct experienced.

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  2. Ellen FayNovember 1, 2020 at 7:37 PM

    Hi Rachel, I like your post and your opinion about people having emotional ties to inanimate objects. It is true, every one of us possess our own set of thoughts and idiosyncrasies and you are right, thoughts cannot be controlled, however cultural and societal expectations do have a way of influencing what some might consider to be attractive or repulsive. You state that "the viewed will have an emotional link to the artist," how so?

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  3. CharlotteNovember 1, 2020 at 9:45 PM

    Quite the interesting art piece you have used for this post. I have to admit, from looking at it, I'm not sure if he is concerned, or trying to shove his hand in his mouth. I never thought of conversations as a performance art. Speeches sure, but not a normal conversation. Perhaps, do you think that body language in addition to speech is a performance art as well?

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  4. AshtonNovember 3, 2020 at 7:49 PM

    I can't remember if it was in the reading or not but I never thought of conversation as performance art until now. I took some communication classes and it really makes sense looking back on it all with the way you have to perform to express your thoughts the way that you mean to for others to interpret your brain. What do you think the backfire is of performance art, if any?

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