You may have heard that James Franco and Lady Gaga are performance artists, that their careers themselves are art objects built up over a lifetime. You may also believe that your Uncle Bob farting the alphabet is performance art. And maybe it is! Really, it’s up to you, there’s no quick and easy chart to tell what is performance art and what isn’t. Nevertheless, there are a few guidelines to follow when defining performance, in the context of the medium’s history as well as its current practice. Despite what you’ve heard, there are good reasons that getting carried into the Grammys in an egg isn’t really an act of performance art.
performance art
Posted inOpinion
Political Performance in the US House
American politics has always been deeply connected to spectacle. Yesterday, Rep. Joe Crowley (D-NY) delivered a one-minute “speech” on the floor of the House of US Reps and it was pure art.
Posted inArt
NY Museum Embraces the Art of Clubbing
Could your next bar night actually be an art night? THE FUN Fellowship, a new initiative by New York City’s Museum of Arts and Design (MAD), promotes nightlife to the status of art. From the creation of a shared artistic community to the breakdown of social boundaries that comes with an excess of substances and music, urban nightlife is an established cauldron of creativity. Yet New York City’s artistic institutions have lost touch with nightlife practitioners, says FUN curator and MAD manager of Public Programs, Jake Yuzna. THE FUN Fellowship, granted to four artists or art collectives annually, is a way to remedy that disconnection and support the nightlife community.
Posted inOpinion
King Phillip IV Signs Autographs at the Met
Contemporary art definitely has its superstars, but art history? For this special day, Spanish painting celebrity and subject of a portrait by Velazquez, King Phillip IV signed autographs in front of his picture on view at the Metropolitan museum.
Posted inArt
The Quiet of Hermann Nitsch
Hermann Nitsch’s performance at Mike Weiss Gallery on February 15th and 16th was a historical moment, summoning the exuberance of his context while disintegrating the mystery shrouding his practice. After stalking Nitsch’s every movement for close to fourteen hours, the legend was humanized. Yes, this is a natural occurrence, but one may expect someone who has made slaughtering animals and organizing group blood orgies a natural part of his practice to be a little … off.
Posted inArt
Thoughts & Photos from the 2011 Maximum Perception Performance Festival
Liveblogging performance art is a little like tweeting a dentist appointment. You go in with some anxiety about the experience, and in the case of the former, you wonder how you will be able to capture all of what you are experiencing but also remain in the moment and engaged even though your mind can wander, distracted by noises, conversations, your own thoughts, and interruptions. When you’re liveblogging you can’t look away, not even if the performer cuts their hand (happened last time and she needed 20 stitches), or pulls out a hypodermic to inject some clear liquid into their cheek (happened this time, thanks Zhennesse). It is an imperfect thing, liveblogging, but I will say it is an exhilarating way to experience performance art.
Posted inArt
Reflections on 2011 Maximum Perception
Maximum Perception was one thing first and foremost: a lot of fun. As a coming together of performance artists, the crowd at the English Kills event packed the gallery on both evenings, with a noticeable overlap between nights, as well as between performers and spectators. Artists helped fellow participants set up, carry out and document their performances, spectators got in on the action once in a while and Hyperallergic editor Hrag Vartanian, myself and Daniel Larkin attempted to document the whole thing live, an experiment in itself. The vantage from our little blogging table wasn’t ideal, but thankfully I was in a pretty good place to see most performances. Here are my thoughts, five days later, on this year’s Maximum Perception.
Posted inArt
Liveblogging Maximum Perception, Sat Night
Tonight, Daniel Larkin and I will be liveblogging night two of the Maximum Perception Performance Festival at the English Kills Art Gallery in Brooklyn.
Last night’s liveblog can be found here and tonight we’re going to be trying some new things as we go along. Each night a new experiment and we’re going to try to have as much fun as we can while recording what we see and what we hear …
The Twitter hashtag for tonight’s event is #maxperception and you can follow our Twitterfeed here: twitter.com/hyperallergic.
Posted inArt
Liveblogging Maximum Perception, Fri Night
We’re setting up at the English Kills Art Gallery and getting ready for the Friday night liveblogging session.
Tonight, Hyperallergic’s Kyle Chayka and I will be manning the blog, Twitter & everything else and taking turns chiming in about performances and what’s going on around us.
The Twitter hashtag for tonight’s event is #maxperception and you can follow our Twitterfeed here: twitter.com/hyperallergic.
Posted inSponsored
This Weekend’s Maximum Perception Performance Festival Features 17 Global Artists Over 2 Nights
Come out this Friday and Saturday night — 7pm to 12am each night — for the Maximum Perception Performance Festival at the English Kills Art Gallery in Bushwick, Brooklyn
Curated by Peter Dobill and Phoenix Lights, the 2011 Maximum Perception Festival will take place over two nights and showcase 17 national and international performance artists, focusing on presenting a dynamic range of contemporary performance practice from the best emerging artists in performance. Hyperallergic is a media sponsor of Maximum Perception and will be there both nights to liveblog the performances.
Posted inArt
Talking to Nate Hill About Punch Me Panda
During last month’s #TheSocialGraph exhibition, Hill dressed as a panda and lived in a crate in the gallery. He named the character, “Punch Me Panda.” For a penny you could either punch him in the gallery or invite him to your home in Brooklyn via tweet (@natexhill). He also roamed the streets trying to relieve people’s frustration and anger while he was dressed up in his persona. This conversation with artist happened late last month and reflects on his performance and what it is all about.
Posted inArt
FREE VOINA! Two Russian Art-ivists Languish in Jail
The radical performance art collective, Voina, has been challenging the Russian authorities for years but on November 15 two of their artists, co-founder Oleg Vortonikov and Leonid Nikolayev, were arrested for a performance this past summer that involved the overturning of a cop car as part of an anti-corruption protest.
Even with this major set back, Voina continues to fight and they resist the efforts of the authorities to squash their artistic protests. The group has fans all around the world and even stealthy street artist Banksy is a fan and has thrown his support behind the group and pledged £80,000 in an effort to help. To find out more about the situation I conducted the following email interview with Natalie Sokol, a third member who was also detained but later released, about the arrests.
