Rest Energy and Other Works: Marina Abramovic and What We Owe To Each Other

"I only do something if I'm afraid of it, because that's the whole point". I've returned to Marina Abramovic's work often here (Marina Abramovic- The Artist Is Present and Coming to Terms with Guilt, The cult of productivity and the point of doing things?, Rhythm 0, Marina Abramovich, 1974) The way she deconstructs human intimacy into these building blocks is such an interesting process to watch unfold. As the above quote by Abramovic states, you cannot hope to find closure or fulfillment without first experiencing fear. Denying yourself the state of being afraid will only serve to hinder your ability to love yourself and others more deeply. "Rest Energy" was a kind of exercise in how much we emphasize dependence on those we trust. Her then-partner, Ulay, held out an arrow, while Abramovic holding the handle the most integral part of the bow aimed it at her chest. So, if either one of them were to let go, the arrow would be shot through her heart. The performance lasted for four minutes in its entirety and Abramovic would go on to say that it was one of the most difficult pieces she conducted. To the extent that you could feel the heartbeat bouncing off the walls. There's no room for sudden urges here but the metric for how deeply you care for someone can be felt through the patience you extend to them even though this patience may be taken advantage of. We have nothing but time and how long can we hide behind the assumption that no one owes anyone anything?

We owe everything to each other our lives are inherently a constant balancing act of pushing and pulling much like this "Rest Energy". We're meant to bother each other to be a nuisance is to be endearing and endearment is worth embarrassment because you can't have empathy without embarrassment. There's a quote by Oscar Wilde that I quite like which goes "If a friend of mine gave a feast, and did not invite me to it, I should not mind a bit. but if a friend of mine had a sorrow and refused to allow me to share it, I should feel it most bitterly. If he shut the doors of the house of mourning against me, I would move back again and again and beg to be admitted so that I might share in what I was entitled to share. If he thought me unworthy, unfit to weep with him, I should feel it as the most poignant humiliation." Abramovic and Ulay collaborated on many projects which they termed "relation-works". Exploring the self-described death of ego and the maintenance of a relationship where your own individual identities are sacrificed for the creation of a "two-headed body" committed solely to the process of performance art. This kind of bond was nurtured through works involving physical movements pushing a state of mutual exhaustion in which a deeper trust is formed. In "In Relation in Space" both artists repeatedly ran into each other in the nude for an hour exchanging physical force as their bodies fold and bruise after each incident of contact I describe this piece as a kind of dancing. Throughout all of the "relation-works" they were never done with the pleasure of pain in mind but as a means of pushing each other's bodies and more importantly their spirits to a place where pain is irrelevant.

In another work titled "Breathing In/Breathing Out" Abramovic and Ulay hold their mouths together breathing into each other, one depending on the other for assurance of oxygen. The performance lasted for nearly 20 minutes before they both collapsed from exhaustion. In this act both participants are equally giving and taking the life from their partner. We're nothing to ourselves and each other without the means to share pain and although love can be an effort of intense labor, and we fear it at times, we must seek it out in spite of that fear. We must be raw and generous with our hearts while we have them because we are only here for a short while and despite our best intentions nothing is permanent.