Audience's Conterfront with Mirror Works of Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, As A Performance Creation Based on Jacques Derrida's Deconstruction Theory

Any definition of an artwork relies on the definition of art, and art definition is based on an art theory revealing the specific perspective of that theory to the art. While giving various definitions of art and artwork, one of the most prominent definitions, which is related to modern art development, considers two primary specialties for anything to be an art: first, to be about something, and second, to tell a tale about that thing; these qualities point to the subjectiveness and narrativity of the art and artwork. George Dickie, in the institutional theory of art, also believes that the artwork must have the dignity to be presented as one, and the institution of art must recognize this dignity. On the other side, Howard Becker gives particular importance to the audience according to “Art Worlds” (1982). In his belief, a thing is an art once it has an audience, and the audience accepts it as an art.
Perception and feeling of the reader in confrontation with the artwork and the artwork's effect on the reader in this deal have always had a special place in philosophical studies of art; this made it possible to redefine the reader's place as an audience based on this "confrontation." Almost every artist will create an ideal audience in their minds. The same audience whom the artwork calls. Since while there is no artwork, it seems like a thought in the artist's mind which has not turned into an aesthetic reality. The artwork presents its communicative aspect just as it becomes available. This aspect acts independently from the artist's will.
This research tries to analyze and interpret the confrontation of the audience with artwork based on Derrida's deconstruction theory and studying Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian's mirror works in pursuit of finding an answer to this question: "What is the relationship between the audience's confrontation with the artwork based on Jaques Derrida's deconstruction theory, and performance art creation?" We also try to demonstrate the relationship between its results and outcomes with performance art creation and, based on this collation, exposure their common and distinction points.
Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian was one of the most significant artists of her generation who produced different and famous artworks in the field of Islamic geometry basics, with a western modern abstract rhythm. Her artworks trace a tendency to mix symbolic geometry and sophistic cosmography aligned with Frank Stella's potent effects. Geometry is one of the fundamentals in Farmanfarmaian's artwork production, and one could see a mixture of the cosmographic geometric pattern in Islamic tradition and modern expressionism in her artworks. Focusing on repetition and renovation in contemporary art is one of the other features of Farmanfarmaian artworks. The Iranian Mosque pattern could be her inspiration and a turning point in her work, which caused her to focus on eternity and the creation of sacred geometry in her artworks.
This descriptive-interpretive essay is based on theoretical studies. In completing qualitative research, we put the outcomes and results of deconstructive confrontation of the audience with the artwork in comparison with performance art creation based on the opinions of performance theory with an analytic-interpretive method. So we can also call it comparative research.
Hermeneutic and the interpretation of meaning made the importance of the audience in reading and confrontation with the artwork clearer. Then, Derrida and his thoughts weakened past imaginations about the text, the meaning, the concept, and the essence in philosophy and other fields of science and art.
Deconstruction is an objection to construction and the western thought of philosophy and art procedure which is defaulted on presence, emphasizing the critical importance of language, and prioritizing speech on writing. "Deconstruction" refers to a picture of construction or a thing floated between ground and sky, which could image something falling, collapsing, something not yet ruined, or wreckage. According to this definition, "deconstruction" of anything implies that collapsing process might be the beginning of a path to a new perception of it.
Using Derrida's deconstructive method in analyzing the audience's confrontation with the artwork leads to renewing the concepts (suspensive) and lets the artwork portray something which could be present and absent simultaneously in and from it. So, the audience will confront a set of suspensive and dual contrasts, which makes it possible for the specific boundaries of creation and reception of the art and also the audience, artist, and the artwork to confuse; this causes the audience to recreate, percept and receive the notions of the author (creator), audience (reader), and the artwork in this confrontation's process as an interactive and multi-perspective atmosphere.
This study believes that a hesitance on dual contrasts of Parergon, difference, and rejection of Derrida in the confrontation process provides an opportunity for prominent parts of the confrontation (audience, author, and artwork) to lose the clarity and certainty in notions and boundaries, to join and connect. Then it follows with shared points and overlaps that make it impossible to tell them apart quickly. As a result of the erasure of notions and boundaries, redefinition in the union's possibility makes them interactive and cooperative. It causes the recreation of notions and the aesthetic notion of distance fitting the deconstructive analysis of this confrontation. 
Recreation of notions would be a beginning point to present a new perspective on the entrance of uncertainty in notions of audience, artwork, author, and the aesthetic distance; especially since the study is about to analyze the relationship between deconstructive analysis of confrontation and the performance art creation, which is a possibility to transition from limiting definitions to interactive, interdisciplinary space in confrontation with the artwork.
Based on this research, an audience is someone present in the confrontation process, and their presence leads to the recreation of basic notions of confrontation based on developing suspensive and dual contrasts (audience-audience's alter ego), (reader-creator), (artwork- art work's alter ego). The audience is not an audience only because they are confronting the artwork but as readers. The art only legitimates as an artwork with their understanding, and this perception would be exclusive to them, distinctive, and related to their specifics and physics, and also the layout and composition of confrontation.
So, in this article's case study, in the audience's confrontation process with mirror works of Farmanfarmaian, the audience's presence and their placement in the layout of the confrontation with the artwork simultaneously lead them to participate in creating another artwork (including the layout of their confrontation with the artwork). This participation causes renovation and recreation of basic concepts of the confrontation and layout. Also, what happens in this confrontation has considerable relevance and common points compared to what happens in performance art creation.
The audience as a reader complements the artwork in this confrontation, giving a dynamic and uncertain identity that is connected and related to this event, the artwork, audience, creation process, reading process, artwork's aesthetic distance, layout, and the whole confrontation in the form of participation in a performance art creation. The audience's presence in this confrontation as participation and interaction in performance art creation leads them to be the reader of the deconstructed artwork. Also, the artwork is not what the artist creates, but it will be created and deconstructed in confrontation with the reader, participation, and interaction in the layout of this confrontation as performance art creation.
*This article is extracted from Ph.D. thesis of Art Research by Mehdi Yarmohammadi under the supervision of Dr. Marziyeh Piravi Vanak at the Fine art research and entrepreneurship faculty of the Art University of Isfahan.