Icon - Marina Abramovic

“The Grandmother of Performance Art” Marina Abramović is an artist who pioneered the use of performance as an art form. Her work explores the relationship between artist and audience as well as the physical and mental limits of her being. The body has been both her main subject of interest and medium. Active for over four decades she is interested in creating works that ritualize simple actions and has consistently avoided traditional, object-based materials such as paint and canvas.

Even though she has made her own body into a vital space for experimentation, she is always progressing and with her more recent works has started to push the boundaries even more to explore how to redefine what performance art means. For example, in of her upcoming pieces looks to use new technology that would allow her to charge her body with one million volts. Also, one of her most recent works The Life is the world's first mixed reality art experience in which the audience can see her ‘’live’’ performance for 20 minutes with the gallery and other visitors to being completely visible at the same time.

I find her work to be of great importance as it teaches us how to always think outside the box and push the limits, even though some things might seem impossible at first. Her way of thinking and creating concepts always makes the audience reflect upon themselves and gives an unforgettable experience as the execution can be very simple but the message is clear. In this day and age, the concept and true meaning behind a lot of art goes missing as it is overshadowed by grandiose executions and the focus being on the technology around it. I believe I could look to her work for inspiration on how to really engage with the viewer and convey meaning with the work without sacrificing the use of innovative elements.