On New Years Day of 2010, the American video artist and photographer Laurel Nakadate (born 1975) began a year-long performance in which she cried once every day. She documented these crying sessions in 365 photographs that record a ritualized intent to “deliberately take part in sadness each day.” Drawing out the biological symptoms of human vulnerability with extraordinary persistence, with this project Nakadate updated the endurance strategies of 1970s conceptual and performance art (Marina Abramovic, Bas Jan Ader) for a new generation with a new relationship to the camera lens. As with the work of her predecessors, Nakadate’s self-portraits of willed sadness arouse a range of conflicting emotions in the viewer, from embarrassment to compassion. 365 Days, A Catalogue of Tears reproduces the full set of photographs and examines their negotiation of intimacy, self-reflection, portraiture and the artist’s relationship with her audience.
