[Thurston Howell III aka Jim Backus----voice on]
Oh Pleeze, apparently performance art is directed towards the enlightened folk in this world and not the "common" man.
The most frequently asked question about Performance Art has got to be What is it? And that, admittedly, is a tough question to answer. Generally, Performance Art is a category that many artists find themselves in if they are unhappy with the idea of working in only one traditional medium. Performance Artists are often interested in exploring several artistic disciplines and producing work that may cross traditional media boundaries such as works that include aspects of theater, music and the visual arts including video. Many performance artists are also interested in crossing the perceived boundary between art and life such as thinking of everyday activities in an artistic manner.
The history of Performance Art is just as hard to pin down as the definition. If you are interested in its history, a good book to start with would be Roselee Goldberg's Performance Art: From Futurism to the Present. It provides a good overview of the relationship between Performance and European Art in the 20 Century. However, it is a bit limited if you are interested in interdisciplinary work that was made earlier in history or work that was made in non-western cultures.
[Thurston Howell III-----voice off]
And on a final note...I'll now admit that my computer at work doesn't allow access to U-tube so I haven't seen the video yet and in fact consider myself a "common" man...
(j/k....wanted to bust some balls!)
Originally Posted by Jolly Roger VX'er
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