Ashlyn Reynolds L&S Arts & Humanities
Archiving the Body: Preservation Models of Performance Art
Residues of the prominent performance artists of the last half century tend to accumulate in two places: the museum gift shop, sold as hyper-commercialized trinkets, or already laid to rest as “documents” in abject filing cabinets of major institutional archives. These conventional repositories for impermanent art provide a suffocating arrangement for artistic movements broadly intending to subvert traditions of preservation and commodification.
My summer research will investigate the art preservation practices of the Marina Abramović Institute. By extending Abramović’s legacy through participatory workshops centered around her artistic method–rather than reducing her work to static records or relics–does her institute of representation offer an alternative to the archive and a viable model for sustaining ephemeral artistic practices? This project will involve rigorous theoretical inquiry, research into artist-founded institutes and foundations, and direct participation in Marina Abramović’s Cleaning the House workshop.
Message To Sponsor
I’m writing to express my heartfelt thanks for your support in making my summer research possible. This experience is providing me the rare opportunity to directly study alternative models of preservation practices in ephemeral art, including firsthand participation in the Marina Abramović Institute's Cleaning the House workshop. I am sincerely grateful for the opportunity to pursue this work and for your investment in advancing critical inquiry in the arts.