For this year’s Art Fair I will challenge artists, security guards, curators, cleaners, volunteers, organizers and members of the general public to a test of strength, as I take on all-comers in the ancient discipline of arm wrestling.

 

“The Artist is Arm Wrestling” is a playful re-imagining of the Marina Abramović work “The Artist is Present” (2010) – a 736-hour and 30-minute performance piece during which the artist sat immobile in MOMA’s atrium while members of the public were invited to take turns sitting opposite her. Some participants wept, others fled, whilst others stood their ground and held her gaze.

 

By inserting an arm-wrestling contest into the space between the artist and the public, I introduce the rules and create a completely different game. ‘The Artist is Arm Wrestling’ explores how rules paradoxically encourage play, and reveal true character. How and why do we compete, and for what?

 

The work is a continuation of two performance cycles I have staged over the last year – Anthea Moys vs. The City of Grahamstown and Anthea Moys vs. The City of Geneva, and also represents the continuation of my long-standing engagement with participatory performance practice in contemporary art, and my interest in play, risk, and failure.

 

See more here: 

http://10and5.com/2014/08/20/fnb-joburg-art-fair-anthea-moys-rules-of-play/