Marina Abramovic (b. 1946) The Chamber of Stillness, 2013 Multimedia sensory deprivation experience comprising wooden bed, lavender pillow, crystal quartz stone (selected by the artist in Brazil), lab coat, eye cover, headphones, and framed instructions 65-1/2 x 84 x 42 inches (166.4 x 213.4 x 106.7 cm) Unique piece based on the Abramovic Method PROVENANCE: The artist; Commissioned by the present owner from the above. NOTE: We wish to thank the Marina Abramovic Institute for providing cataloging assistance. Designed to be enjoyed in isolation in a designated room, the artist's directions for this experience are as follows: 1) Set the door alarm for a 30- or 60-minute session 2) The door will close 3) Dress in lab coat and put on headphones 4) Lie on the bed 5) Place your head on the pillow 6) Cover your eyes with the eye mask 7) Empty your mind 8) Remain until the timer goes off 9) Stand up 10) Place eye mask on the bed 11) Hang up the lab coat and headphones 12) Leave Serbian performance artist Marina Abramovic wants to be loved. She wants to be strong and spiritual. But she does not want her work to be pigeon-holed. Born into a family of devout socialists, Abramovic found inspiration from her grandmother and great-grandfather, practitioners of Greek Orthodoxy. To Abramovic, there was something beautiful in their spirituality. She writes that as she began to develop her passion for performance, she leaned into the strength of her parents, the spirituality of her grandmother, and the love of her audience. Abramovic's early work from the 1970's is powerful, youthful, and provocative, particularly the performance pieces in which she used her body as the medium. Configuring her body in painful or awkward positions, she created a dialogue with her audience about boundaries, violence, and vulnerability. She claimed that these performances were neither feminist nor political, rather meant to evoke a more general belief that pain associated with endurance can be the door to self-knowledge: "An artist should suffer, and from the suffering comes the best work. Suffering brings transformation and through the suffering an artist transcends their spirit." By 1988, Abramovic had separated from her longtime partner and collaborator, Ulay. Their final piece, The Lovers, was both an ending and a beginning for Abramovic. She reflected, "An artist should not lie, steal, compromise, kill, worship idol, and above all love another artist." After their breakup and during her time in China, she began to focus on her spiritual self. While walking on the Great Wall of China, she felt something "new and different," brought on by the minerals in the earth. She sought to recreate this sensation in her next solo exhibition, after nearly twelve years; after extensive research into Tibetan and Chinese medicine, she formulated a system of correspondence between minerals and parts of the body, calling her new pieces "transitory objects." Unlike her early "body works," which accentuate violence and conflict, her "transitory objects" unify body and earth and connote euphoria and clarity. While in her seventies, Abramovic began reflecting on the importance of time and developed the "Abramovic Method," a culmination of her 40 years of performance. In this method, she reverses the traditional roles of the viewer and the performer and calls upon the viewer to become the artist. For example, she claims that "we are all warriors" and "the planet is dying," urging viewers to participate in changing destiny with Zen-inspired mindfulness. Heritage is delighted to offer Abramovic's The Chamber of Stillness, which specifically utilizes quartz for a transitory experience. In Tibetan Buddhism, quartz is known for its powers of protection and purification and is said to vibrate the sacred Om sound of the universe when placed over the third eye. These attributes affect the placement of the quartz in the work and where the participant should lie and meditate to achieve enlightenment. The experience requires complete silence; hence most participants use noise-cancelling headphones. In silence, surrounded only by vibrations from the universe, the participant lies completely still and reaches a higher plane. HID03101062020 © 2022 Heritage Auctions | All Rights Reserved

Presents very well and in overall excellent condition. Minor rust discoloration at the top of the crystal where it is suspended on a metal ring. Dimensions listed are overall measurements; the table height is 30 1/2 inches. Please note that the timed door lock referenced in the instructions was a component of the original owner's home for which this piece was designed, and is not included in this lot.
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