On another tip: a while ago I wrote about attending Marina Abramovic's show, "The Artist Is Present" at the Museum of Modern Art. Today a student, Rachel K., sent me a link to Marco Anelli's portraits of Abramovic and her sitting participants, all 20 pages of them: Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present—Portraits.
Here's the young woman I captured a photo of on the day I went. As has been reported, some notables (Colm Toibín, who wrote about his experience on the New York Review of Books' blogsite; Agnes Gund; James Franco; Lou Reed; Rufus Wainwright; Björk (and her daughter); Tehching Hsieh, etc.) have participated. Some, like this gentleman, participated multiple (10+?) times. Some have been brought to tears by and during the experience. Another tried to bring Abramovic energy through humor, even painting a red dot on her nose. And perhaps, most dramatically, Abramovic's former partner, Ulay, joined her as the third participant, on the first day, and took her hand, bringing her to tears.Finally, it seems, even the museum guard who appeared to have been a bit bemused about it all the day I was there got into the act. Oh well. If you can't dismiss them, join them!
