On 20 July 1964, Yoko Ono debuted Cut Piece at the Yamaichi Concert Hall in Kyoto, Japan. The innovative, feminist artwork, which utilises audience participation, invites an active audience to ‘come on stage—one at a time—to cut a small piece of the performer’s clothing to take with them’ as Ono passively sits on stage wearing a long-sleeved black suit, a pair of scissors in front of her.
What a fascinating comparison! I have never seen Cut Piece but I find even the description profoundly disturbing. The performance of female vulnerability seems redundant to me and the only defensible reason to stage it in my view would be to provoke audience members to stop it, but I fear that even in the radical circles and times of the 1960s, the basic embarrassment and passivity that spectators feel would not make this happen: they would watch if empathetic or cut if aggressive/drunk/extrovert/downright sadistic and there would be no progress made in resisting the daily attacks on women everywhere. Quite the opposite. (And I also consider myself to be against censorship!) You don't say what you think of Cut Piece, Sabina, would you be prepared to make a direct comment from your own/feminist perspective?
Re. the Schiaparelli, this I see as a more humanist artwork, emphasising the common physicality of all people under their clothes and I like the staging of it on a glamorous evening dress. To wear such a garment would be to take ownership of the body's interior rather than give away all agency as in Ono's performance. Lack of agency has nothing to do with world peace, to me.
Whether anyone agrees with these reactions of mine to your brilliant post, or not, it has certainly made me think and organise my thoughts, somewhat! Thank you.
What a fascinating comparison! I have never seen Cut Piece but I find even the description profoundly disturbing. The performance of female vulnerability seems redundant to me and the only defensible reason to stage it in my view would be to provoke audience members to stop it, but I fear that even in the radical circles and times of the 1960s, the basic embarrassment and passivity that spectators feel would not make this happen: they would watch if empathetic or cut if aggressive/drunk/extrovert/downright sadistic and there would be no progress made in resisting the daily attacks on women everywhere. Quite the opposite. (And I also consider myself to be against censorship!) You don't say what you think of Cut Piece, Sabina, would you be prepared to make a direct comment from your own/feminist perspective?
Re. the Schiaparelli, this I see as a more humanist artwork, emphasising the common physicality of all people under their clothes and I like the staging of it on a glamorous evening dress. To wear such a garment would be to take ownership of the body's interior rather than give away all agency as in Ono's performance. Lack of agency has nothing to do with world peace, to me.
Whether anyone agrees with these reactions of mine to your brilliant post, or not, it has certainly made me think and organise my thoughts, somewhat! Thank you.