Rhythm 10
1973
Performance Art
20 knives, tape recorder
Abramovic’s first explorations into Performance Art focused on sound installations, however, increasingly she incorporated her body into her work – quite often causing herself harm in the process. For “Rhythm 10” Abramovic used a series of 20 knives to rapidly stab at the spaces between her outstretched fingers. Every time she pierced her skin, she selected another knife from those carefully arranged in front of her. Halfway through the performance, Abramovic began playing a recording of the first half hour using the rhythm of the knives hitting the floor or her hand to repeat the same movements.
Marina Abramovic
Performance Art, Feminist Art, Body Art
Born: 30 November 1946, Belgrade, Yugoslavia
Nationality: Serbian-American
Abramović is a conceptual and performance artist, filmmaker, writer, and philanthropist. Her work explores endurance art, body art, and feminist art, the relationship between the performer and the audience, the limitations of the body, and the possibilities of the mind. Abramović has been active for over forty years and refers to herself as the ‘grandmother of performance art’. By bringing the active participation of the audience, focusing on confronting pain, blood and physical limitations of the body Abramović pioneered a new notion of identity. She founded the Marian Abramović Institute in 2007 as a non-profit foundation for performance art
Jezzie G 