A correspondent has alerted us to a “performance” by the celebrity-artist (?) Marina Abramovic. At first we thought that the press release and “show” must be some sort of hoax, expressed through outpourings of philosophical gibberish. Surely this must all be some sort of sly spoof on the narcissism and grandiosity of the Art World, right? Alas, the artist appears to be offering her painfully vapid “energy generator” in all earnestness:
PREPARATIONS FOR A FORCED INTROSPECTION
EVIDENCE FOR AN ART OF NOTHINGNESS
Leaving aside her complete lack of understanding of what she refers to as “Tibetan teachings of oneness”, Ms. Abramovic appears either ignorant of or indifferent to the actual history of sensory deprivation as deployed within the present “no touch” torture regime of interrogation and incarceration. We have explored these histories in more detail elsewhere. A concise summary from the peerless historian of our distinctly American brand of torture, Alfred McCoy, follows below:
THIS IS NOT A PERFORMANCE
A DISTINCTLY AMERICAN ART FORM?
Returning to Ms. Abramovic in light of this history, we need only quote from her own press release:
Desperado Philosophy 