So Contemporary art is very much concerned with the idea behind art and sometimes more so than the actual art itself to the point that one might consider the idea itself the art. Art in this era gives rise to such revolutionary mediums as performance art happenings and so forth. Anyways, both of the images below are of Wafaa Bilal’s performance art. As an Iranian-American Artist, he felt inclined to make a commentary on the war in the middle east that affected his homeland.
Over the course of a month he was shot at 60,000 times by viewer who could monitor him 24/7. This project is a commentary on human nature as much it is on war. In theory, Bilal may have never been shot but people chose to shoot him which comments on the ease of harming others especially using similar remote technology such as drones. Instead of producing an object this sort of art is meant to be an experience and provoke thought as much as activism.
