Advanced Life Drawing : Perfromance Piece

For this particular piece I chose to explore the idea of identity, individualism, and culture. I wanted to marry this idea with light and see how I can create an experience for the audience to see an identity without culture or race. I was very inspired by the work of Marina Abramovic, where she sat in the MOMA and stared at people for as long as they wanted to. This artwork is very powerful to me because she creates a human connection with all her audience without the importance of individual race or culture. There is no verbal communication or anything of the such. It simply is the sharing of a moment of time in the midst of all the craziness of the world. I wanted to combine this idea of sharing one's self, through other means than speech or dialogue. Something that wouldn't be about race, culture, or differences between humans.
The artwork itself works by the simple instruction. Be with my shadow. I stand in front of a 650 W Fresnel Light on a black room with white walls and cast my shadow in one of them. Then the audience can either sit, look, or interact with me. But the idea is that each person interprets the instruction how they wish, and hopefully we can communicate and interact without language. I think that one of the things that is thoroughly missing from society today is the ability to connect with other humans in a more true fashion. Today we are all boggled by our phones and we are constantly available to be texted to, called, and emailed that there is a general lack of time to create a face to face connection that is more than superficial with one of our peers.
I was heavily influenced by the work of Ray Metzker who would photograph people many times in the shadows or only their outlines, and this would create an interesting perspective about the people he photographed to make them look almost as anyone. The power of the darks and the way he photographs is something I relate to a lot.
I believe that photography and film are mediums that try and create emotional reactions from audience members from all around the world and they rely on symbols, compositions, and icons to create their frames. Similarly, I wanted to create a similar experience but not in the way photography and film capture the past. I wanted to do it in the present and have people have the choice to interact with me. The outcome of the piece, I imagine will be very different from person to person. I predict that some people may pull out their phones or be too shy to participate. But even that reaction is a testament to my thesis - that we are too deprived of a human connection that is independent of technology, race, and culture. In other words, I aim to provide a way for people to remember that by virtue of being human and alive one can relate to others.