Rastros Corporales (1974/1982/2017)
English translation: Body Tracks
January 10, 2017
Performance: 35 minutes
Post-performance installation: Red paint; Dimensions variable
"Dialectics of Isolation," curated by Artemisa Clark
Human Resources, Los Angeles
Documentation: Joshua Chambers-Letson, John Tain, Matt Savitsky
I reperformed Ana Mendieta's Rastros Corporales (1974/1982), wherein the artist marks either paper or canvas with blood and paint with a single, performative gesture. Rather than making a single set of tracks on a material that could be moved, as Mendieta did, I repeated the gesture until the white walls of a gallery were covered in the red markings, the audience surrounded by dripping, red paint. While the installation was eventually painted over, it could not be fully removed and is therefore inextricable from the space in which it was created. It can be covered, but it will always remain. This was performed during the run of Carl Andre's solo show in Los Angeles.
|