“Happiness comes from the full understanding of your own being.”
Marina Abramovic
I feel that happiness is the full understanding of your own being however I also feel that the full gamut of emotions such as sadness and anxiety make up a full understanding of one’s being as well.
“Time is an illusion. Time only exists when we think about the past and the future. Time doesn’t exist in the present here and now.”
Marina Abramovic
I like this quote by Marina and it shows a great method for living in the moment and the benefits of that.
My friend from art school Katthy Cavaliere studied up to a master’s level at COFA in photography but after art school mainly focused on performance art.
She was awarded a grant to go to Europe and work under Marina as her mentor.
Katthy changed the spelling of her name from Kathy to Katthy as perhaps a way to reinforce her new identity as a performance artist. She was born in Italy and came to Australia as a migrant with her parents as a young child.
In the late nineties she won the prestigious travelling art scholarship and went to Italy to live and make and exhibit work there.
My favourite Abramovic performances was called the 736-hour silent piece refers to “The Artist Is Present,” a famous performance by Serbian artist Marina Abramović at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in 2010, where she sat motionless at a table for over three months, inviting museum visitors to sit opposite her in silent, shared presence.:
However, I just researched this performance to day and it was other performances that stood out prior to today.
My favourite performance piece by Katthy Cavaliere was at Artspace in Sydney.
I was at Artspace to see the Artist performance ( as seen in the photo above) and she gave each audience member a toy from her childhood and asked them to write a few sentences in a book of photos of the toys about the meaning for them.
“Katthy Cavaliere (1972–2012) was an Italian-born Australian performance and installation artist known for her deeply personal works exploring grief, dislocation, and identity, leaving a significant legacy through posthumous exhibitions like Loved and the, Katthy Cavaliere Fellowship established to support women artists in her field from 2020 onwards, with major events and touring shows continuing through 2024.”
Katthy died of breast cancer 23 January 2012 (age 39 years). This was very sad for her remaining family and in the Sydney and international art scene as she wasn’t just incredibly talented but kind too. Apart from studying art and being a contemporary artist she was also a high school art teacher.
In conclusion I find contemporary art very interesting but I find women making performance art is incredibly intriguing. There are many other contemporary performance artists in the world and these two artists are just the tip of the iceberg.
