I'm not going to lie, I do not care very much for performance pieces. A performance to me should be on a stage, with a script, so it is hard to put the label of "performance" on something outside of theatre.
On the same token, though, I get it. Yoko Ono's "The Cutting" is a living painting of the trust of a woman to the society around her. Like everything else, it is up to the viewer to decide if each cut and alteration to her clothing is for the better or worse. I will say, that I was impressed by how they all seemed to be just snipping away at her sleeves, the buttons on her cardigan, the hem of her skirt. For all intents and purposes, it was almost a testament to humanity upholding her personal space and modesty until the end of the video when the man was taking away the outer layer of her bra.
Then again, maybe that was the point of the performance and the reason for her sacrificing her trust; to show the different liberties people will take and to make the viewer uncomfortable. Even in performance theatre, often the plays that intentionally made the audience uncomfortable were the ones that had the greatest lessons to teach, and the discomfort was how they gripped one's attention to listen.
All in all, I respect Yoko Ono and "The Cutting" but I don't like it. I'd rather see Shakespeare.
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