Conical, pointy hats—the kind that witches might wear—abound in “Energy Clothes,” Marina Abramovic’s solo exhibition curated by Sydney Fishman. Fashioned from canary-yellow or cherry-red silk, these items rest on pedestals or perch atop the artist’s own head in the large-format digital pigment prints Energy Hat (Eyes Open), 2021/2022, and Energy Hat (Eyes Closed), 2021/2022. Abramovic developed the idea for “Energy Clothes” while teaching at Fondazione Antonio Ratti in Como, Italy. Furthering her investigation into energy and its transmission, she devised an assortment of objects such as hats, masks, and bands, which she coupled with magnets as sources of energy. In another series of photographs in the show, she sought to channel these forces by conducting mundane activities such as watering plants (in Energy Hat [Gardening]), 2001/2023), lying in a bathtub (Energy Hat [Lying], 2001/2023), or even sitting on the pot (Energy Hat [Sitting], 2001/2023), all while wearing an impossibly elongated hat. This awakening and channeling of energies to achieve heightened consciousness appears to borrow from Indian yogic practices. The project is in keeping with “Transitory Objects for Human Use,” 1989-, an ongoing body of work in which she fashions objects out of specific materials in the belief that they impart energies to the user.
Complementing this display is a selection of images from the artist’s early performances, including Rhythm 10, which was first staged in Rome in 1973. Abramovic’s durational performance pushed both physical and mental limits with an intensity that can be felt in the lines she used to describe the work: “I take the first knife and stab it between the fingers on my left hand as fast as possible. Every time I cut myself, I change the knife.” These words still possess the ability to hit you in the solar plexus.
— Meena Menezes