Unicorn

Rebecca Horn is a big inspiration for performace art. Because of a past, near death illness, her eyes were opened to the world of body performance. She was determined to leave to world of lonliness and communicate through bodily forms (Cork). Her fear of physical protection began to insipire her work, but she later became open to the world of healing and the human wellbeing (Cork). In her first performances, she explores the difference between body and space. She attached objects to a human body and revolved mostly between the body and the enviorment that body may have been in at the time. Later, she replaces the human body with sculptures and brings them to life. But I believe some of her best work is when she worked with the human body. The work and films she made before the sculptures really made you think of what she might have been thinking of while creating it. Like this photo above, what did it make you think of when first looking at it? All of her body attatchments I believe have a strong meaning behind it, and it's up to us as the veiwer to believe the video as what we want it to be.

Horn liked to play with a lot of diferent types of body extentions, one as the picture above displays. This was a video performace, Unicorn 1970, of a young female fellow student that appeared naked. She would walk all day "like a phantom" (Cork) through a forest. Horn stated that "two hunters passed by on bicycles and literally fell off in disbelief”. Some people believed she had an obssession with healing, and that these wraps that held the unicorn "hat" to the participants body, what a form of a bandage (Hughes). It gave a veiw that women are victims, and "a display of wounds is all you need to make a peice of art" (Hughes). Her desire for these body performances came about from her isolation from fumes she had worked with before the 70s. This made her have a strive for communication through the body, furthermore, why she had made the body attachments like the one above (Hughes).

I can, in a way image this peice of being a symbol of healing. A woman, naked walking through a field with absolutley no expression on her face reminds me of someone that may be hurting. In a way, the wraps go to show that she's trying to be healed, and unicorn hat, well, I see it being a way for her to keep herself protected from someone above her. When I say someone abover her, I see it being maybe a man figure in her life, or a bad relationship where the man feels superior to a women, therefore, above her. I really love this peice because it lets you interpret it however you wish. This obviously shows her creative mind, and that maybe she had had obsticles of her own, in which she would have liked to be protected.

Hughes, Robert. "Art: Mechanics Illustrated." Time Magazine. 13 Sept. 1993. Web. 17 Nov. 2009. <http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,979201,00.html>.

Cork, Richard. "Rebecca Horn invades our senses." Times Online. 21 May 2005. Web. 17 Nov. 2009. http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/article524661.ece>.

Pencil Mask

Imagine the photo above in your head, imagine it through your own eyes. Some people may say all I can see is a woman behind straps attached to pencils. Well, if you look harder, and deeper within yourself, you can come up with something more sentimental. Like all of Rebecca's work, I believe there is a story behind every single one of them. Sometimes they may seem weird, extreme, or even frightening, it still gives the sense of a feeling. To me, all of her performances and artwork give you almost a burning feeling inside. When I look at it for a while, I feel myself almost getting uncomfortable, especially with this piece. This piece resembles someone that may not be able to speak for themselves. In my eyes, it represents someone unable to voice their own opinions. So they have the pencils to tell how they feel. It looks some what painful, in a way makes you feel a pain as watching it. So really, what does this mean? What was Rebecca feeling, thinking, and imagining when creating this body attachment?

In this performance, Pencil Mask 1973, Rebecca has this mask strapped to her face, with short green pencils attached to them. She then faces a wall, and begins to drag the pencils back and forth across a white wall. We hear the sound of it, which is the first part of the film (Napier). She continues and blinks heavily throughout the video, and the pencils "spring out" as she does so (Napier). Then she persists to draw harder, causing the sound to become heavier. She slows down, then stops (Napier). "Pencil Mask, the first thing you see when you arrive at the show, was a fetishist and frightening way of protecting and creating herself" (Winterson).

This woman is an artist of transformation. She believes is the art of a "transformative message"(Winterson). She is an installation Ovid, "ready to tell how bodies change into other bodies" (translation, Ted Hughes). It is said in numerous articles that her work, objects and people ear morphed. Because of her traumatic event from chemicals, she was forced to be isolated. This isolation becomes a large part behind her work. She also combines humor and pain in her art (Winterson). Jeanette Winterson had an interview with her, and said Rebecca "makes us smile, laugh - and then comes the pause and, often, the discomfort. The seriousness and the playfulness run together." This is very true, especially in this piece. You think to yourself, what is she doing? What is that on her head? This sense of humor comes out, but then as she does the performance, you tend to feel a discomfort. Rebecca Horn is a very unique artists, and after researching her thoroughly, she has become a favorite artist of mine.

Napier, Laura. "Icarus Redeemed: Rebecca Horn." Performances II. Article. 03 Jan. 2008. Web. 17 Nov. 2009. <http://articlejournal.net/2008/01/03/icarus-redeemed-rebecca-horn/>.

Winterson, Jeanette. "The Bionic Woman." The Guardian. 23 May 2005. Web. 19 Nov. 2009. <http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2005/may/23/art>.

The Feathered Prison Fan

Rebecca Horn has a fascination with the human body and what it can do. Because of her isolation, when she got back to work, she found herself thinking in terms of "images of confinement -- cocoons, swaddling, bondage, prostheses" (Hughes). She has such a large mind of creativity, which allows her to imagine these objects to let the society see the romantic, new surrealist way of looking at the body. She puts a twist to the natural feminine opinions of the body, with adding more than just desire, passiveness, and romance (Hughes). Again, with this obsession with healing and protection, Horn displays this more hidden view of the body. With some of her earlier work, she displayed the women's body more open to the eye, with less clothing, and body wraps. This particular performance, The Feathered Prison Fan 1978, shows less of that, showing the audience a "cocoon", feathered like, object protecting the body.

This performance caught my eye because it was so different from the usual Horn performances. Yes, it displayed the healing obsession, but like in the title, it's more about the body in prison. "It is oblique, magical and ironic, and has none of the in-your-face tone of complaint (men are colonizing thugs, women are victims, and a display of wounds is all you need to make a piece of art) that renders the work of so many of her transatlantic sisters so monotonous" (Hughes). This statement I believe says it all. Although people believe she is far from feminist, she still gives off an opinion in her work. This goes with the performance above, stating that she feels as if she needs to hide, as if she's a "victim", and needs protection, help, etc. The title alone, with the word "prison" intact, gives a easy perspective that the human body should be cherished.

I feel a remorse when I watch this video. It almost makes me feel uneasy, hurt, and scared myself. That a artist can show this much sentiment towards the human body, it just fascinates me. It scares me in the sense that most women really are victimized, and unsafe, for example, walking in a street at night alone, and that at any moment can be assaulted and almost scorned for life. Any natural woman has an instinct to protect her body, which if this body is broken, her soul would be also. You tend to see a pattern with Rebecca's work, and it's hard to figure out at first, but after seeing this specific performance, it becomes clear what she is trying to make the audience see. The human body is a gentle, tender, easily hurt, piece of our self, and if this is hurt, our inside (heart, soul, mind) is hurt along with it. So it's so important to keep our body safe from harm, and protect it, from things that may break it. The Feathered Prison Fan demonstrates this perspective completely.

Hughes, Robert. "Art: Mechanics Illustrated." Time Magazine. 13 Sept. 1993. Web. 17 Nov. 2009. <http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,979201,00.html.>