The Expression Of The Body In Art

In artistic creation,the body is not merely the external morphology of matter,butalso the medium through which the arts expresses ideas and thoughts.Performance art is aunique artistic form.The artist deploys the body of her own or that of others for artproduction.It is often presented in the form of live performance.The article focuses on theatricality so as to provide an analysis on how the body expresses the meaning inperformance art.The notion of theatricality derives from theatre.It arises in the space where bothperformers and audience are present,and emphasizes the interactive relations between theperformers and the audience in the public space.This article,by scrutinising andanalysing the work of Marina Abramovic,aims at proving performance art and dramaticart have something in common so that they accord with the aesthetic characteristics of theatre.The article also concludes that it is the inherent theatricality that distinguishesperformance art from other artistic forms,by elaborating on the theme,the meaning andsignficance as well as the aesthetic theory in the work of the selected artist.In this way thearticle makes the following contribution.First,it provides an alternative perspective tonalyse performance art,as it indicates the positive implications of 'theatricality' on bodyexpressions and spatial practices in contemporary art.Second,it affirms the relationshipbetween 'theatricality' as a dramatic theory and performance art.