Things read – Week 02

A stylized and artistic depiction of a little girl holding the hands of her father, both seen from the back, with the mother watching from a distance.

Walk Through Walls

Been reading Walk Through Walls: A Memoir by Marina Abramović. I have never heard of the book or the author, but man, it reads like butter. There's something about the way it is written (so simply and to the point), the kind of stories it has, and the dry humor. She is an artist with a communist background, so that tension keeps the text flowing.

Also, first time reading something about performance artists and the thoughts behind their arts. She pulled off a performance called Rhythm 0, where instead of creating an art in a traditional way, she performed the following:

My plan was to go to the gallery and just stand there, in black trousers and a black T-shirt, behind a table containing seventy-two objects: A hammer. A saw. A feather. A fork. A bottle of perfume. A bowler hat. An ax. A rose. A bell. Scissors. Needles. A pen. Honey. A lamb bone. A carving knife. A mirror. A newspaper. A shawl. Pins. Lipstick. Sugar. A Polaroid camera. Various other things. And a pistol, and one bullet lying next to it. When a big crowd had gathered at eight P.M., they found these instructions on the table:

RHYTHM 0
Instructions. There are 72 objects on the table that one can use on me as desired. Performance. I am the object. During this period I take full responsibility.
Duration: 6 hours (8pm - 2am)
1974
Studio Morra, Naples.

I won't spoil much, but the performance gives as much insight into human behaviors as the next Jung book. I am only halfway through it, but I highly recommend it.

The cult of done manifesto

A nice little reminder to "just ship it". Quality follows later. The point of being done is not to finish but to get other things done. People without dirty hands are wrong – doing something makes you right. Failure counts as done. So do mistakes. And finally, if you have an idea and publish it on the internet, that counts as a ghost of done. (Link). Similar to idea that's been ingrained in me: first do it, then do it right, then do it better.