Luminosity (1997) was a performance art installation by Serbian artist Marina Abramović at Sean Kelly Gallery, New York. Along with Insomnia and Dissolution, Luminosity formed part of a larger work by Abramović called Spirit House.[1]
In Luminosity, Abramović appears nude, balancing herself on a bicycle seat on a pedestal apparatus, mounted high on the wall.[2] The artist keeps her arms and legs fully extended, evoking Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man.[3] However, this posture places painful pressure where her genitals make contact with the seat. Throughout the performance, the artist is bathed in light of changing intensity.[1][3]
Luminosity is considered an example of endurance art. The work was reperformed in continually, in shifts, by the artist's trainees for 700 hours during the retrospective exhibition, Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present at the Museum of Modern Art in 2010.[2][3][4]