D e a t h D r i v e
Freud proposed that humans have a life instinct and a death instinct. His theory was based on these drives (sex and aggression) dominating our lives. The drive for aggression is an external representation of the death drive. The death drive seeks destruction, life's return to an inorganic state. In some cases this aggressive drive is directed inward, resulting in suicide.Freud believed that most people channel their death instinct outward. Some people, however, direct it at themselves. Depression has often been described as "anger turned inward." Many with suicidal ideation make disparaging and aggressive self-statements. This also relates to Freud's theory; some people are driven to destroy themselves.
Understanding and challenging the death drive can help one manage their depression. For many, understanding there is an innate voice that wishes for death and destruction can help to separate, and thereby distance, one from these thoughts. Distance from the thoughts helps one disown them and take away their power. You are not your thoughts. Once these thoughts are recognized, they can be challenged, minimized, and disregarded. Healthier thoughts can be put in their place. Additionally, if one realizes ultimately selfish acts contribute to unhappiness, they can challenge the desire to act selfishly and be more caring toward others. Reciprocation may follow, and more caring, supportive relationships can emerge. We already challenge, or positively channel, our other drives. Once we recognize the unconsciouspower of our death drive, we can do the same with it.
References: Comer, Ronald J., Fundamentals of Abnormal Psychology, Sixth Edition.
Copyright William Berry, 2011.
A night at the gallery quickly turned into a horror show. They took the scissors off the table and cut off all her clothes, one man tried to rape her, another loaded the pistol with the bullet and pointed it at her head, another still cut the skin on her neck and drank her blood.
Marina Abramović, Rhythm 0, 1974. Performance, 6 hours. Studio Mona, Naples.
Marina Abramović, Rhythm 0, 1974. Performance, 6 hours. Studio Mona, Naples.
A woman wipes tears from marina's face.
# Rhythm 10
'Once you enter into the performance state
you can push your body to do things
you absolutely could never normally do.'
— Marina Abramović
'Rhythm 10' was absolutely crazy, It was based on a drinking game played by Russian and Yugoslav peasants: you spread your fingers out on a wooden bar or table and stab down a sharp knife, fast, in the spaces between your fingers. Every time you miss and cut yourself, you have to take another drink. The drunker you get, the more likely you are to stab yourself. Like Russian roulette, it is a game of bravery and foolishness and despair and darkness – the perfect Slavic game.
Marina Abramović, Rhythm 10, 1973. Performance, 1 hour Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Villa Borghese, Rome From: Abramović, Marina, and Klaus Biesenbach. 2010. Marina Abramović: the artist is present. New York: Museum of Modern Art.
Marina Abramović, Rhythm 10, 1973. Performance, 1 hour Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Villa Borghese, Rome From: Abramović, Marina, and Klaus Biesenbach. 2010. Marina Abramović: the artist is present. New York: Museum of Modern Art.
Marina Abramović, Rhythm 10, Performance, 1 hour Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Villa Borghese, Rome From: Abramović, Marina, and Klaus Biesenbach. 2010. Marina Abramović: the artist is present. New York: Museum of Modern Art.
Marina Abramović, Rhythm 10, 1973. Performance, 1 hour Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Villa Borghese, Rome From: Abramović, Marina, and Klaus Biesenbach. 2010. Marina Abramović: the artist is present. New York: Museum of Modern Art.
Marina
Abramovic
performance artist / filmmaker
'What I learned was that ...
if you leave it up to the audience,
they can kill you ...'
— As Abramović described it later
# '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 (8 pm – 2 am).
Confrontation, Marina Abramović, Rhythm 0, 1974
Marina Abramović, Rhythm 0, 1974. Performance, 6 hours. Studio Mona, Naples. Table with the 72 objects to be used by audience members during the performance.
They saw Marina as an object, and they played with her sadistically like a cat with a mouse. They were also required to use their own creativity when deciding in which way the objects were used, and it is surprising how quickly they abandoned the safe objects in favor of the truly dangerous ones. The dehumanization that occurs is in part due to Abramovic’s immobility, in part due to her silence, and in part due to the acts of objectification enacted upon her by other members of the crowd. It is in part because the spectators saw their contemporaries enacting hostilities that they felt able to also.
What makes this work so frightening is that it took a simple absolution of guilt for this randomly collected cross section of society to resort to viciousness and disregard for human life.In the post-apocalyptic dystopia we see so often in books and films, once state authority is removed society becomes feral and vicious.
In 1891 Oscar Wilde explored this topic in his essay The Critic As Artist.
“…Art does not hurt us. The tears that we shed at a play are a type of the exquisite sterile emotion that it is the function of art to awaken. We weep, but we are not wounded. We grieve, but our grief is not bitter.”
Almost a hundred years later, Abramovic proved this to be incorrect.
P e r s o n a l
u n d e r s t a n d i n g :
I think Marina and her "rhythm 0" are in such an extreme way to present the ferocious side of human nature. After many years, the whole process of the written records and pictures are still chilling to see.I think this process is showing the death drive of themself which originated form the behavior they did to the Marina.Her work was more focus on the test of human evil,because they could do everything without limitation.And that is why when the exhibition over,Marina stood up and started walking towards the audience , but everyone ran away ,to escape an actual confrontation.As the same,in the Rhythm 10,she just forced to herself do something when your awareness coming.I collected 2 classical artwork to explain what death drive is.
Abramović’s adherence to her pre-set rules for the performance demonstrates her dedication to testing her mental and physical endurance through ritual and sacrifice.
Making use of twenty knives and two tape recorders, the artist played the Russian game, in which rhythmic knife jabs are aimed between the splayed fingers of one's hand. Each time she cut herself, she would pick up a new knife from the row of twenty she had set up, and record the operation. After cutting herself twenty times, she replayed the tape, listened to the sounds, and tried to repeat the same movements, attempting to replicate the mistakes, merging past and present. She set out to explore the physical and mental limitations of the body – the pain and the sounds of the stabbing; the double sounds from the history and the replication.
# H a t F a s h i o n I n T h e P a s t
hat fashion in 18th