Catch Piece

When I first heard the prompt, I was very nervous. I was more of an appreciator of performance art rather one that performed. Upon hearing of the challenge to use non-traditional materials, the first thing that came into my mind was tea. The color of tea can be dark or light and can offer a pretty delicate mark on paper.

I thought back to the different examples we discussed in class and I really enjoyed Yoko Ono's Grapefruit piece. I had seen a few of these instructions at the NYC MoMA exhibit on Yoko Ono and at the time I was already very intrigued. It was rewarding to me to remember that and be able to address those curiosities with this project.

I looked through various Yoko Ono instructions from Grapefruit and found them to be so fascinating. The execution of the piece was so minimalistic while sometimes the words asked for a little too much. For example in "BLOOD PIECE" it states that you use your blood to paint until you either faint or die. I took inspiration from her simplicity yet demanding instructions.

Another artist that I thought of when planning for this piece was, Hye Yeon Nam. Her four part video self portrait, Walking, Drinking, Eating, and Sitting, is a interesting piece that explores the constant patience and hard work is needed for "fitting in". She creates obstacles for herself when doing every day tasks. And she captures the quiet patience that occurs when doing these tasks with the obstacles. Her actions also causes me to feel anxious and uncomfortable as well. Her patience in the videos allow me to feel bad for her as well as see her as a very naive person, one who is willing to keep going even though the task at hand is designed to work against her and fail.

For my piece, I wanted to pull from both Yoko Ono and Hye Yeon Nam. I wanted the instructions to be simple but also demanding and I also wanted to explore discomfort and the idea of impossible.

My instructions are:

Catch a drink in your hands

I chose to use a Taiwanese tea that was given to me by my parents. This tea is high quality tea which is shown through difference from the tight rolled dry leaves to the large expanded unbroken tea leaf after steeping. This also provides a tangible object to catch, but in the end, the drink is the steeped tea not the leaves.

I chose this tea to address the difficulty I have of grasping Taiwanese culture. It's not something that can be taught and I haven't had the opportunity to really experience it. So for me, the Taiwanese culture is always so close to touch but impossible to fully hold on to.

The meaning of the piece can vary dependent on the drink and performer.