I Want To See you - Franko B 'I miss you' 2003

https://jesstomlinson.weebly.com/journal/essay-part-two-franko-b-i-miss-you-2003 https://teaching.ellenmueller.com/walking/2021/05/23/franko-b-i-miss-you-2000/

TRIGGER WARNING: SH and NUDITY. sensitive material

This is one of my favourite pieces of performance art. The context and sheer shock value of this piece are what entice me to it [I believe]. In general, I think that 4D performance is so exciting. I particularly enjoy the discipline when it is shocking or discomforting. I don't think that those human emotions that we can hide from. Without our consent, we have visceral reactions to things we are uncomfortable with and we need to confront those emotions in some way.

The context of Franko B's, 'I miss you' is an exploration on many things. He paints his skin in white paint to mask his tattoos and race. This aspect of the performance strips away his individual uniqueness. we can't tell who he is, he becomes another face, someone with no identity. The white paint also signifies his attempt to conform to socially acceptable norms. The white men. Which he describes as the 'historically dominant race'. As a black woman, I understand his exploration of conforming to society. And as person of colour, he sticks out, predetermined information has been given to him because of the colour of his skin.

The performance also confronts the human enduring pain. I think that pain is an interesting concept to investigate. As humans, we all know the feeling and all have similar thoughts of a lack of comfort associated with this. In my own work; especially performance based, I think that it is important to explore humans and the body often. the universal experiences mean that we are producing both subjective and easily understandable work which I find interesting. Franko B, uses audience to emphasise universal experiences. Watching someone in pain is uncomfortable, it puts the audience in similar shoes to the performer just through observation. I think it would be interesting to think of ways in how I could performance piece that would make the audience feel what I am feeling to some degree. This performance however is self harm. it is very intentional to mean that to Franko B.

I explore the concept of pain and injury being byproduct of over repetition in my work and wether or not it could be considered self harm as I still overwork despite knowing what the repercussions of that is. I think this is interesting and I really like how you can visibly see this conflict in my movements and body language as I get progressively more exhausted. I don't want to continue and yet I do. and I think theses also seen in Franko B's performance.

This performance was also enhanced by there location it was done in. The ground floor of the Turbine Hall, which was transformed into a catwalk-style runway, with a long stretch of white fabric, illuminated by strobe lights which skirted its parameter, running through the length of the space. the vastness and large scale of the turbine all add to this performance. there is no other visual information to distract you from it. this is ideal for performance art, and something that is missing from my video, as the audience has to pay attention to the performer this way, there is no other information to take in. There is also something eerie and sad about the vastness of the location. to me ,Franko B, feels alone, despite there being a large audience, he is an individual in that space, an outsider if you will.

I need to consider what m ideal setting would be for my performance piece as I think setting makes a performance more interesting and impactful.

Research

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