What if you brought a goldfish in a bowl and sat it across..Does it have to be a human? How about a mime or a person with a mirror..so many ideas and nobody has come up with anything decent. blarg..no fun

I'm a performance artist - and Abramovic is one of my heroes. I got to MOMA at 8AM and waited in line with tourists to buy a ticket to experience this work. I watched for 2.5 hours as museum members, new york city's wealthy elite, and hot shot museum folk were ushered in ahead of the paying public. I realized, as I finally stood in front of the cash register at 10:30 that A) I would have to wait for hours to see her, if at all, even though I was almost literally the first person there and B) Abramovic at MOMA is about commerce and not art. I walked out, grateful that I could spend the 20 bucks on my own work, my family, or a hot dog. I think I got more from the work than if I had actually seen it. Her work is great, but in this context - it's like a pearl in a dumpster.

now it's your words and gothamist vs radbecca's words.

i really don't want to go...

Heh. Look, I just pull information from several sources then speak with an authoritative tone... so don't mind me. I was never there in person because Radbecca doesn't wait in line. However, I dig staring contests...

Just don't try it on a subway unless you like a bullet in your head.

...and those are still, just words.

suddenly, i have become a very untrusting person.

eh, i'll still enjoy my beer this weekend.

I liked this piece better when Frank Zappa did it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=vRNnRJny9j4#t=2m55s

OK, maybe not.

oh please, spare me...

you know what this is? this is the art of contempt.

this is what happens when rich snotty kids grow up and become artists or run museums and galleries. they can't produce or find anything meaningful on their own so they take the easy way out and find simple and obnoxious ways to get attention by coming up with a concept and calling it art.

I suggest you read up on the artist, since you seem to have no idea what you're talking about. Start with this: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/03/08/100308fa_fact_thurman

thanks for enlightening me jen s.

interesting story/person.

at the same time this particular stunt of hers is

silly stuff.

The fundamental thesis to all of Marina's pieces is "the artist becomes the object." It is as much about the audience as it is her. You stare at paintings, sculptures, drawings, etc. making emotional connections and analytical judgments and now you stare at her doing the same. The difference for "The Artist is Present" is that you are being documented and exhibited via MoMA.org and Flickr. She isn't the one to be looked at, it's you. The audience has become the object.

this is just pure bullshit! and trying to justify it and come with some sort of "smart" justification of it is making bullshit from bullshit. what a waste of time space and money that could go towards art with more meaning and drive and dare i say skill involved.

keep this important, riveting story alive jen carlson!!!

i simply can't read enough about it!

I find this funny. All art is open to interpretation, but mine is that she's interacting one on one with the viewers and consumers of art -- the people -- to provide a new perspective on what art is and what it means. Whereas normally only celebrities and other "artists" might ever have any interaction with her, now she's breaking down the wall and removing art from the empty echo chamber of nonsense in which it usually operates.

Except...she's not. She's moving in the same bullshit, "allow me to tell you how wonderful your last film was" circles. The "artist is present," but she may as well be there by photograph.

So she's pretty much pissing all over her own "art." Good stuff. I mean, I'm not trying to give you some "artistic integrity" argument -- but if you're freely willing to transform your piece from what it was meant to be into a celebrity kiss-kiss booth...why should anyone pay you any attention?

Isabella Rossellini waited in line. Her assistant asked if she could cut and Moma refused. Lou Reed DID wait in line... so did Rufus Wainwright and Sharon Stone. Lady Gaga couldn't suck it up and wait, so she left. You people love so quickly crying "elitism" without doing your research. Sheeples.

careful calling out gothamist. you might get an angry email from jake dobkin calling you a troll. like i did when i called the site a "celebration of bulls---"

ok, it's your words vs gothamist.

Gothamist -- a scraper site that I dearly love -- isn't a news site, evident by first-person language and phrases such as "we're pretty sure."

that's good! from now on i'll think of carlsons's hack-ups as "scraping a dead horse". (jake of course would have it that she is "(*snif*) curating a dead horse", but that's just TOO silly.)

Spot-on analysis of gothamist. Yes, we all come here and post because we're bored, but it is a really just a vacuum for posting other people's efforts and work (at best) and allowing us schmucks to rant about it.