User:Jjen12

For my Wikipedia Gap Analysis, I decided to do research on Marina Abramović. Wikipedia already has an article that talks about the work that she's done, but I wanted to expand more on it.

Looking at Marina Abramović's Wikipedia page, I noticed that although the article includes all of her performance art, it does not include anything about her personal life, or her personal goal through her art. I did some research beforehand, and after looking through the Wikipedia article, I noticed that the article did not include her credibility as a professor. I think the reason for this is that the author of the article wanted to focus on the performance aspect of her life. This is very limiting in a way because I feel like this gap detaches the reader from knowing more about her. It makes it seem as though if someone was to read through the article, they would get the idea that she is an artist with a passion for the high of extreme performance. In other words, an adrenaline junkie. In a way, this type of thinking creates an automatic judgement of her character, what her purpose or significance her art has, and whether or not there is more to her performance than pain or blood. In addtion, her article also included the movement she was part of, but didn't really go into detail or explain how her work and performance was a part of the movement. This is also very limiting because readers should be able to move beyond Marina Abramovic, once knowing about her contribution in the conceptual art movement because that could lead to knowing more about other feminist artists and how they are interconnected.

I want to propose a rewrite of certain parts of Marina Abramović's article.

The first part that I wanted to add was a section about her goal through performance art and what she has done as a professor. Abramović has also seen and used her body as her subject and medium. Through her performances, she has withstood pain and exhaustion in the quest for emotional and spiritual transformation. She has taught and lectured in Europe and America, including Hochschule fur Bildende Kunst in Hamburg, and the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. In 1994 she became Professor for Performance Art at the Hochschule fur Bildende Kunst in Braunschweig where she taught for seven years. In 2004 she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the Art Institute in Chicago. I think this is important to include in her article because, the current article was very vague with what her goal of performance actually was. Adding that she taught and lectured gives the reader knowledge that her legacy is spread through her teaching as well as her performance.

The second part of her article that I wanted to edit and rewrite is her career section. In the section describing her performance of Rhythm 0, 1974, when Abramović laid out the 72 items she stated "I had a pistol with bullets in it, my dear. I was ready to die." At the end of the six hours, she walked away, dripping with blood and tears, but alive. "How lucky I am." This is important to include because it showcases her emotions and how she felt about the performance, which her wikipedia article lacked.

I also wanted to include an "Ask me anything" session that she hosted on Reddit. In the "Ask me anything" session, she was asked how the last hug felt in her performance with Ulay at the Great Wall of China felt. Abramović replied, "One of the most painful moments of my life. I knew this was over, I knew it was the end of a very important period in my life. I just remember I could not stop crying." This answer describes how her art is directly emotional. Her body that is the subject and the medium is at risk. Her relationship with Ulay was considered to be one of the most significant parts of her career, and therefore, the separation risked shattering their artistic legacy as well as their lives. Her emotions for Ulay still persist as shown in her performance The Artist Is Present, when she reaches across the table for him.