Asked their opinion of the art world, many will complain they don’t understand it, referring to the conceptual nature of many contemporary works. Clearly one facet of art should be to provoke thought — to have the viewer think or apprehend the world differently. However reliance on intellect to “understand” art is often responsible for the tortured logic artists rely on to defend their work.
Performance artist Marina Abramovic’s piece “512 Hours” opens in a London Gallery this week and consists of nothing but an empty room and the artist. Though it has already had the effect the artist may have been seeking –– controversy and subsequent discussion — Abramovic’s defense of her idea of a gallery with nothing in it sounds like a clip from an old episode of Seinfeld:
“From my point of view, it’s difficult for anyone to claim nothing,” Ms. Abramovic said dryly. “I think it’s a misunderstanding anyway. It’s not that I’m doing nothing — quite the opposite. It’s just that there is nothing except people in the space. But now we are getting letters every day from people who did nothing first. It seems to have become something.”