01-25-10: Artist #1: Mary Coble

 So I was driving home from work and ideas just started popping in my head. I have been wanting to really experience performance in my work. Many people have stated that my work is performative but for the camera. I really want to have genuinely performances, real performances.

I was thinking that I would do a live performance where I would be as nude as I can get (publicly) and have people write on me with marker. I would want them to be as honest and brutal as possible, literally labeling me as they want. A friend suggested looking at Mary Coble and I realized she did something almost identical. It is still something I am interested in though so from here I want to find alternative ways of doing something so similar. Anyway...on to research of Coble.

 Mary Coble

Representation: Conner Contemporary Art

Artist Website: Mary Coble

Mary Coble lives and makes art in the DC area. She received her MFA in Photography at George Washington University.

Performance Documentation from Marker (Madrid, Spain)
2008
As part of: ARCO'08 Performing ARCO

Performance Documentation from Marker (Washington, DC)
2007
As part of: SiteProjects DC

Her informational text, "You are invited to write on the artist's body deragatory words that have been used against you or slurs that you have used or heard used against others." 

Performance Documentation from Marker (Washington, DC)
2007
As part of: SiteProjects DC

I'm very interested in this project and how Coble decided to organize it. Her intent in this particular project and in most of her other work is to put on display discrimination and bigotry that happens subtly everyday. She states, "I want to challenge people to re-evaluate overly simplified and narrow understandings of a much more expansive reality."

"I try to be conscious of the constrictions that we all struggle against. The dichotomies that our society follows, such as feminine/masculine, beautiful/ugly and rich/poor are too narrow and restrict the myriad of experiences that makes up personal expression. I do not accept the roles, boundaries and decisions that our culture and society has strategically planned for all of us without taking into account our individual needs and desires."(from Coble Artist Statement)

Her whole artist statement is like candy to me. I agree with everything she has to say and think that her work is very successful in making a powerful political statement. 

I particularly enjoyed Coble's response to the marker project, "Blood Script".

Untitled 6 (from Blood Script Portfolio)
2008
24X20, Chromira Print
Portfolio Edition: 7

 After compiling a list of over 200 hateful words taken from her marker performances, she took 75 of the most common and had them tattooed on her body without ink. She juxtaposed the ornate lettering with the hatred of the words used. The tattoos drew blood and contact sheets were made immediately with watercolor paper.

Untitled 8 (from Blood Script Portfolio)
2008
24X20, Chromira Print
Portfolio Edition: 7

Dyke (from Blood Script Portfolio)
2008
8X11, 1 of 75 Unique Blood Paintings on Watercolor