An interview with Marina Abramovic caught my attention while driving this week. She recently completed a live performance at the Museum of Modern Art in New York called The Artist is Present. For 736 hrs. and 30 minutes Marina sat and stared into the eyes of anyone who would come and sit across from her for as long as they liked.
A CBC News report wrote, “But that milestone is secondary to the intense interest in the piece by the public and emotions it evoked in many of the people who participated.” The article goes on to say,
“Abramovic herself was surprised at what she saw when she looked into people's eyes. ‘So much pain and so much loneliness. People have these incredible emotions and I give them the space to express them,’ she said. Many of those who sat opposite her cried. Although the experience took place in a public gallery, with many others watching, ‘after a while they really meet my gaze and the whole world disappears,’ she said.”
The artist commented that it appeared that the reactions and emotions from those who sat across from her revealed many different reasons for their reactions, but that for many the experience was profound.
The importance of eye contact is stressed in a number of areas such as public speaking, counseling, relationship building and even negotiating. But let me try to summarize what I think I heard from the artist although the observation flows into my own thoughts on the subject. The experience moved from ‘glance’ or ‘contact’ to what might be termed ‘connection’. For some this meant first looking away before coming back to the more intense and prolonged encounter. But it’s not hard to imagine that this began to move to the belief that someone was interested, cared or even simply was there for you. Our day to day contacts are so brief; our world has become full of sound bytes; our individualism often isolates us; we find it hard to listen intently to anyone for more than seconds without glancing at our Blackberries (or IPhones) and yet we remain part of a human race that craves relationship and community. I believe the need goes well beyond the lonely and damaged people that have had significant difficult experiences and touches all of us.
There may not be a special magic in our retina but it takes a kind of commitment to look someone in the eye and then keep that focus. The look takes on depth and what might be termed a soul connection. There seems to become a flow of empathy, caring, sharing of burden, a release from the loneliness of shouldering the load by yourself.
This artist’s performance took me back many years to when I had occasion to sing and speak at an evening service at the Harbour Light Mission in Toronto. Two things struck me as they closed the service. The first was that my audience was compelled to be there. They had to come into the service to be able to go to supper after. The second was that from experience I knew that many of these men knew the gospel story and Bible at least as well as I did. The only thing I felt I could do was reach out as they passed by on their way to eat, shake hands and say hi or maybe God Bless you. Knowing that they wouldn’t stop to chat I prayed that they would see the love of Christ and His compassion in my eyes in that brief encounter. One young guy seemed to feel that connection and I gave him my phone number and he later called me at a desperate point in his life. But that’s another story.
If we are to bring peace, minister to, or even just escape our own loneliness in the middle of a texting world of social media we need to find a way to link our souls with the souls of others. We need to move from a simple glance at a person passing by to gazing into their eyes and on into their heart.
