Essay Extract · Performance Art
This is a short extract from an essay written on the about Yoko Ono’s performance artwork, Cut Piece, in which she invites her audience to walk on stage an cut off a piece of her clothing. Despite the artwork being in reference to the harrowing events of the bombings of Hiroshima in 1945, this extract explores the concept of gender and nudity.
Although it is not the focal point of the work, it is impossible to ignore the concept of gender and violence when looking at Cut Piece. The 1960s of the Western art world was not as modernised in their views as one may expect as critics of the period choose to only see the sexual aspect of the performance. Critic, Julia Bryan Wilson, questions “How can we rethink Cut Piece in a way that does not circle back to the scandal of exposed female flesh?” The stigma around women’s sexuality continues to be present within today’s society, as a naked body can still only be seen as a sexual object. Through allowing the audience to remove her clothing, Ono’s performance is overshadowed by the discussion of gender and violence rather than a tool with which to express her pacifist views. Ono studies the social dynamic of power as she gives the audience the scissors allowing them to unclothe her making her appear vulnerable. However, throughout the performance Ono hardly moves and keeps her gaze straight ahead not showing any emotion. I believe that this, if anything, is an act of empowerment for the artist as she grants the audience permission to cut off her clothes. She is the centre of everyone’s attention: not showing any emotion about the vulnerable situation she is in. Yxta Maya Murray describes how the “white people” surround her as “repulsive” which is suggestive of racial undertones to the work.