Laurel Nakadate (Lecture Response) 2/23

Quotation

"Again...total failure."

This quote is important to me because most of what I do is technically a failure. Whether the failure makes the work worth while or renders it a pure failure is a question I wish I could answer right now. Nakadate is really encouraging in this aspect, because she doesn't hide behind that question.



3 Words

1) Chance
2) Empathetic
3) Relational



About Nakadate

One thing I learned about Nakadate that I didn't already know is that she is primarily a performance artist. In my mind, she was a video artist who used herself as a subject. I wish she had shown more of the video clips instead of just still images because her ability to transform a seemingly questionable situation involving two strangers into a collaborative relationship is unreal and amazing to watch.



Answers

My first question involved Nakadate's casting herself as her subject. More specifically, I wondered whether she considered her work to be autobiographical. After attending her lecture yesterday, it is clear she does not. Rather, she is interested in personally inhabiting the spaces she "maybe isn't supposed to go to." In this way, she is able to play out relationships which began with "chance encounters" with strangers.

My second question involved Nakadate as a female artist and the relationship between video and the conceptual theme of gender. In Nakadate's work, the issue of gender is always present. When working with men, she tends to collaborate and befriend, highlighting the nuances in her relationships with them which may be taboo or not supposed to occur in the spaces they do. Rather than an exploitative approach to using men in her performances, Nakadate seems to relate to them as a partner and collaborator. When Nakadate works with females, she seems more removed and either mystified or maternal.



Compelling Piece

Nakadate only really spoke about much of her work, and showed stills. I think the most compelling work was the video she did show, "Oops." In this video, she danced with several different men in their apartments to a Brittany Spears song, Oops I Did it Again. I found the piece compelling for its empathetic values, as well as collaborative nature. Instead of finding the work to be exploiting, I realize that Nakadate relies on the relationships she has with these men in order to make the work. She said in her lecture that she "wanted them to choose her," which seems opposite to the traditional young female role of the enticing "siren."

Laurel Nakadate "Oops!" 2000