Project 3, Performance Drawing

Olivia Collins

I decided to base my drawing off of an image Marina Abromovic’s performance piece Point of Contact that she performed with her then partner Ulay. The image shows the two of them standing across from each other wearing similar clothing. They both have their index fingers extended and pointing at one another. The photo captures their two fingers almost touching, with a slight gap that separate the two people. It also shows the difference in their height which helps the eye move through the piece better rather than if they both were at the same level. 

The body is the most important aspect in this piece and all performance pieces as a whole. They are the figures in the work. The piece is an interaction between the two people, the photo just documents this. Abramic describes this specific piece as very minimal. This piece is supposed to show the energy that is shared between the two performers. This energy is captured by them making direct eye contact with each other and almost physically touching but restraining. 

This was actually the first performance piece that came to mind to transform into a drawing. This performance in particular is something I have found successful due to the lighting of the environment. The lighting makes the gap between their two fingers glow which shows the intense energy between the two performers. Point of Contact is a unique piece by Abromovic since they are both wearing the same formal attire. 

For my drawing off of this performance I decided to use charcoal as the medium. This seemed like the obvious choice since the lightning is so important as previously mentioned. The overall process of this drawing was standard to a charcoal piece, I decided to tone the paper myself instead of having a pre-toned paper so I could control the exact shade of the background. I sketch using vine charcoal but most of the drawing is done in charcoal pencil. I also wanted to use white charcoal which is typically not used on paper you tone yourself but I feel it is important to the glowing aspect of Point of Contact.

https://www.moma.org/audio/playlist/243/3122

Point of Contact