Michael Barker

My practice focuses on using the 3D medium or the performance style, usually to focusing on the topic of endurance. The idea of my work is that the process of the work is the piece itself. Matthew Barny’s Drawing Restraint piece has had a particular influence into my practice, the idea that the strain of the body can be used to make art is an interesting concept. My practice focuses on the degradation of the body and how the body fails over time.

The idea of my work is to use endurance art as in a performance to display how the body will fail after time, this is an attempt to make the viewer question their own mortality. In our current exhibition I attempted to display similar themes as Marina Abramovic When creating this work, I was particularly influenced by her piece where she sits opposite the viewer for a total of 750 hours, this would not only be physical enduring but emotionally too.

By working with the idea of endurance I was initially inspired by the idea of creating work that is physical and emotionally enduring for the artist and how I can get the viewer to experience these emotions as well. When creating endurance art Matthew Barneys Drawing restraint has been a massive inspiration into my practice, as I have now started using performance art to display the degradation theme.