Dick Hliggins digwa apnns hnFu

d%3MANCE After twentytoUr years noW be calledar

no longer need any definition for
per twences r 'iap
adnw"art pert~mae"' im mttal"~nsO
a ong ocso When I was Younger I
inda no
abouth n e~tit find its own torm
orel I only
an Identity- But now
neded nerbterms thepgvmyell
to hep give mysep n on the secret of what I
ndtemso toas so that the tsnew
needed new hep iter
am t oin, weeet
tem aketheir own txonomy
other People "n sitht
Laurie Anderson to hel them ak ' Cie.
similar wO
a ork a
lthtion r on.orits
As an artist, my work derives from language and interval; whether it is forms won't give them any obstather,to oter sii
sutability by its relationship
expressed in terms of words, images, or music depends on the type suhowb s a fusion, conceptu I,"mixedd media."
of interval, the tone of voice, the content. Most of my work thus, is, however auson knows which is
medim ad is Intermedia" as oppos ays
I'm not sure what makes performance art different from theatre-but medium and is medum, for instance' one s
mise~efl~scene in my
ne Inm
te bOk" anwichI the of
one guess is that theatre tends to be linear and narrative. Traditional auscwichd
operathis comiph he "book" and w make graphic images
plays invent characters, change them, and predict their post-play the music, musc with words, can be a dance
lives. Performance is freer to be disjunctive and jagged and to focus works I c e world of intermedia.mheent
ele
ere
o havrarn r c hl p n
on incidents, ideas, collisions. If you want to talk about earthquakes M Ythat
e ee t oand sound t y ' aaton
is Poetry literary elete
gestures;
in a performance, you don't have to have a character who is a element Tmyssan taxonomy Of classificas they did when was
tomimes. Thus an I am doing the wO , ierlk
geologist or back from the tropics where an earthquake triggered a t~fo term u en ike' a
love affair or introduce someone who is otherwise suitably motivated validity for
t 5
jus mysell, while
o~~ut- instead I ry
tyt to ieotthe
figure out th "eie udi
to bring up the subject. -u~nseo 'en "art per
or even"r r e tosstheadenea
periotmace"osbe combining
just starting
"dance" or "theatre"
had an" o "se their definitions wre at will not battle but Wil
In theatre, an actor's job is usually to convince you that he or she is n tk
someone else in some other time and place. Personally, I feel closer hand, andcesary to make a descriPt
to the attitude of the stand-up comedian-not only because I believe Invite each neiN audienc
noyw
that laughter is extremely powerful but because the comedian works
in real time. Of course, "I'm a real person and I'm really talking to
you" can quickly become grotesque-even more of a fiction than
theatre-but I still prefer this frame. As in all generalizations, the
above is full of contradictions; and in fact, the main thing that at-
tracts me to performance art is that it is full of contradictions of all
kinds. 047v
/'10

3611 1
bte
naitxcan1~ eluse'e
%e
tdo a
 Performance
theatre with certain
is theatre and the line
distinguishing between
traits. Sincedoes
the form
not exist.
is stilPerformance
"e'rivol0i
isthtprvie b teNEA: "performance Er svriet
performance
Plerne is
is is that proide by
no r "visua" tan
Occurring iavsaring,"
the a
va r-et-
oof
the best adefinition 'w
-
IS
any other kind of iual atcon text.", Pretty vague..
O esnberg ivisually dynam c, but the same could be said oftheatre. scene desThe work Of Colette
i Je Sv oboor
(konfo (w
i cntuciitsettings
rh a bvisual on thethearly
eatreSoviet
for half a
stage).0dcentury) or the director M eyerE
Mostagain
But performance
this kindartOf istheatre
"non-literary" which mans that IE F LT
it is
isno non Artaud wrote lacking a pre-written Plot/script.
the thoyfor
percmnntaton erenainerier in this cnuy it, and The Living
ear
Time and characterization baffle performance artists the
rys. attempted to Manifest the dream. IT
most. re Not to menton ae
"build" since it does not rely on a
and
structure plot for time str ct he
the audience's
or sim ple job
repetition. strre
is to wThere
ait itis out.A
no tensio ucturing The structure
s ofen a ro ces 3 0OU M
sn.c e wh at is go ing to h ap p en is b uio s E s A P OEM
Furnace wasay some artists don't know how TH Et
to use time Robert Longos 8
Character is often the andf minute Piece ATpn14cRheE-obr on0s8 iu articular Spacetraslate is aY" n l ei
at Franklin
a de
Consider s ds
Asch Performan Et O piee t
arace r is ofen the s dg s so ncthe
e sfgip in ththepefoa
ev isual p ointwas km r c ndet l a he din e t ncrs, e d a g g
arie drs o Kathy Acker Plays Kmhple, d aueri
m ry An OeOen er pl aysh b eand
lend th e seles to fast ylemen ofiu th work.e hat an orhitr Kra as ing u eude
s e sls s tramov o
Thi' writing, few rehearsals ha
ms e tic isrce lv and
y h easy
e t laughs.
Wr ks ut Mi ore
t d at y cse Jl Kresn
and m o e f q u pl rse JnlerKsrn a %
As tc n lg st r 1
This csn br hn torks in ler tpends
akin~~~~~h
mor,
d aothsr basic forms,m i forms l igassPlhy d-
upon theleenteo
charisma rather thecork.
than m sspaces",that A d vl de an e ltm tsfi theeva a I ,
oof a gactivity d
ca b su ccrd e sful.
rehearsedIesadecr Layers
boundaries,
of nteer- g the Pethrdbed
T'wsre.or dredful Inesnlatter br
th e case of the hilarious Kipper Jl Asays Po
case "performance
not orthwatcing he hgh shoolskitare Kids (whoand so on.
are well theatre . ecp alteihutheesFrn).AtPrrmn? nAericane b
h
imade
man
a eenin galleries
a h ateaand det with, masks csu -e igte
emer aswine ti
(wowsBo htan anyway?);(whowasBobWhi"
2) learnYu wi hn ted awy ob n
ns tebudingperormace
rfrm rt" is simply asSymolsnie is wites
n o r m dum (it's nc atsts: 1) bdteteadaeeegs
called theatre).learnYu itr rwn ,i h rwn to)-hi
rnt adda ig
al you histor pc o ilf r
RoertO AnshlneyO to without
It's hard to tikO an au' Jean
dondnc.I ote wodtsjutlike he u'est-ceDupuy
que c'est que "performance?"
otes oxetthout the symbolism that formance? Something to do with SPORTPer- (in

yotie pt alot01 eercse ntoit-French). Art Performance) In American

language'? Avant-garde activity during the

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