9/3-Idea-Performance

"ART SHOULD NOT BE DIFFERENT THAN LIFE, BUT AN ACTION WITHIN LIFE." -- JOHN CAGE

Topic: "Performance"


Bruce Nauman, From Studies for Holograms 1970

'The idea of making faces had to do with thinking about the body as something you can manipulate. I had done some performance pieces - rigorous works dealing with standing, leaning, bending - and as they were performed, some of them seemed to carry a large emotional impact. I was very interested in that: if you perform a bunch of arbitrary operations, some people will make very strong connections with them and others won't.' -Nauman

Performance art has many definitions. It can range from readings of poetry to social rallies. The basis seems to be time and and a focus on process. It can be used as a means of resistance. "Performance, with its fluid boundaries and inherent resistance to patriarchal structures, is once again a pertinent vehicle with which to question the construction of identity and systems of representation" (Armstrong). There are also different reasons for why artists choose this genre. "The 'self' as constructed through language (language being all human communication) has been revealed as problematic, particularly given that discourses around it often suggest that both group and individual identity are coherent, essentially biological selves."

Relation to my work: I am interested in adding/maintaining a performative aspect in my work. I found it more rewarding to be doing something and documenting it with my photography. I find often that I deal with self-portraiture or add issues of identity I deal with when working with others. I don't think that the audience part is essential to my work. Not in the sense of watching... I think I would relate more to Cindy Sherman in that since because its the "stills" that I would present. I hope to evoke emotion through the viewer upon seeing the "performance" frozen. I did a piece where I painting my body, and face later, with latex and then peeled it off. I think that it really helped me participate and evoke the feeling in myself I was trying to portray. I don't really want to act...I want the real emotion to come through.

"Choose" copyright Cassie Mulheron

http://www.walkerart.org/archive/D/A67381A4CA6C0F6D616E.htm

http://www.csa.com/discoveryguides/perform/overview.php