Rhythm 10

The first Rhythm performance was done in nineteen seventy three. In this the Artist lays a sheet of white paper on the floor. She lays a set of twenty knives all of different shapes and sizes on the sheet. She has a set of cassette recorders with microphones on the floor. Abramovic switches on the cassette recorders then she takes the knives and plunges them as fast as she can into the gap between her outstretched fingers.

After each cut by a knife she changes the knife and does the same thing over again until all the knives have been used. After rewinding the tape and listening to the recording of the first performance she plays the second tape and does the same procedure over again in the same sequence. Abramovic rewinds both the tapes and then plays the tapes together and listens to the dual Rhythms of the knives. Confronting Pain, blood the physical limits of the body are constant elements of Abramovic’s performances during the years. The artist becomes her own object of work

Abramovic explores the ritualistic and gesture in the element. Playing the Russian game of Rhythmic knives she cuts her self on the same spots in the second set attempting to replicate the mistakes merging the past to the present. The state of consciousness of the artist is being considered. “Once you enter into the performance state you can push your body to do things you absolutely could never normally do.” (wikipedia.org). The purpose of the performance being connecting the past with the present. It shows how the past has affected her. The way she reacts to about thinking of the past and the way it has affected her present. It shows how the mistakes made in the past affects and are as similar to the mistakes made in the present.