‘The Artist is Kinda Present’ by An Xiao

‘The Artist is Present’ was a performance art at the MoMA in 2010. Xiao was almost fully hidden, wearing all black, sunglasses, and sitting behind a laptop and phone. During the performance the audience were invited individually to sit in front of Xiao and communicate by sending a text or Tweet. Xiao responded to participants’ messages until they got bored or reached a ‘satisfactory connection’. I assume the work was inspired by Abramovic's performance The artist is present'. I find this work inspiring to my own practice because it directly shows what people see as their main method of communication. I think people now find it more comfortable to communicate via social media and phones and a lot of people are becoming too anxious to communicate face to face because they art too used to communicating by text.

relationships, and contrasts between online and offline communication.