Sleep Art

As recommend by Adele....

The last image by Chu Yun is similar to the footage I took of myself sleeping, minus the sleeping pills.

"If you like sleeping and like art then the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York is looking for you. You also have to be female, be between the ages of 18 and 40, and be prepared to take a sleeping pill before your performance."

And in a related blog, people commented on how the work didn't seem authentic or should be considered art, which I guess to some extent most art is questionable. One of the more intelligent comments states.....

"With regard to the artwork, I think it is hard to pass judgement about this piece as the image provided is a photographic documentation of a performance installation. A performance is a performance because someone performs to an audience. An installation is a work that is site-specific and interactive. A photograph cannot give a true representation of this and one can only assume their reaction to the real life version.

However, I am particularly fond of the concept. I will disagree with Earl in saying that Chu Yun has simply recreated the work of Tracey Emin. I think that this is a hugely narrow-minded thing to say, simply because both artists have used a bed. The main difference is that Chu Yun's piece is a performance as well as an installation. Emin's piece titled "My Bed" 1998 can be seen as a self portrait. She has displayed her bed as an installation and surrounding it are empty alchohol bottles, condoms, towels, hosiery. It was a statement about her insecurities and portrayed a really personal insight to her life. The work of Chu Yun is almost certainly not a self portrait. For a start, the people that are sleeping are people that she has invited to be the art. Secondly, the sheets are white, the bed is white, the pillows are white. The bed is a blank canvas, the people are the paint.

I find the work enticing. I can only hope that I have the opportunity to see it in person one day. The voyeuristic "peeping Tom" feeling, I can imagine, would feel very different to just looking at the images. How would you feel if someone was watching you sleep? Sleep is a very personal but also essential part of life. I think Chu Yun's work makes a big statement about the quotidian routine. People sleep around us all the time but we pay little attention to it."
# posted by Emma Phillips : 1:23 PM

Emma's comments opened up a new train of thought for me with " the people are the paint" and our entrancement with voyeurism. The bed is a blank canvas but I think it has to be in order for us to full reach a restful state. Maybe I could experiment by sleeping in my normal "blank" bed and in Superman sheets the next, maybe his chiseled jaw, super cool cape and his famous underwear wearing technique will prove all too distracting to sleep??

"People as the paint" is an interesting idea that rings true in Tracey Emin's pieces, with her ability to put herself into the work by leaving evidence of her lifestyle and thoughts behind to give another voyeuristic view into someone's life. Viewing her work is like being a detective and trying to figure out what came before the scene and why.

"A consummate storyteller, Tracey Emin engages the viewer with her candid exploration of universal emotions. Well-known for her confessional art, Tracey Emin reveals intimate details from her life to engage the viewer with her expressions of universal emotions. Her ability to integrate her work and personal life enables Emin to establish an intimacy with the viewer.
Tracey shows us her own bed, in all its embarrassing glory. Empty booze bottles, fag butts, stained sheets, worn panties: the bloody aftermath of a nervous breakdown. By presenting her bed as art, Tracey Emin shares her most personal space, revealing she’s as insecure and imperfect as the rest of the world."