PERFORMANCE ART

“Avant-garde”, in the term of arts, has the meaning of ground-breaking and ahead of
time. As such, each movement that the Avant-garde consists of is considered a
continuous revolution, full of innovation and always challenging what has long been
known about art. Additionally, one strong part of which is Performance Art –
something that is not a medium but rather a tool for artists to question society’s
understanding about art. While being a genre that was built up by the two unique and
original trends: Dada and Futurism, Performance Art seems to be the most inclusive in
the name of art forms comparing to other operated traditional activities.

There is no doubt that the act of human performing in front of one another had been
going on for millions of years, with various famous art forms such as dancing, acting,
singing and many more under the name of art, expressing one’s true feelings and
providing amusement for others. However, it was not until early 20th century was
Performance Art identified as an innovative subject with multiple sides to explore on
its own, making its way into the Avant-garde. Overall, Performance Art generally
includes the presence and interaction between performers and the audience, along
with demonstrating time and space.

Starting from 1900, Italian Futurists decided to hold an evening performance that
lasted for a few days, during which they read out their declared motives for organizing
such event. Following that, artists who followed Dadaism and Surrealism also saw the
opportunity to express their ideas by putting on various performances.

In the 1910s, under the effect of Futurism and Dadaism, artists had persistently
organized performances to in order to refresh their discontented minds, connect with
visitors and search for a wide range of open-minded audience. This starting phase is
known as the “Early Avant-garde age”, when artists were gradually borrowing
different art forms’ styles and holding performances. This was also a way for them to
protest against the World War 1 and more importantly, to break free from the
traditional view of art, embrace a more dynamic approach in what is art and how is
art. During the next decade, Dada followers became highly active and began using
cabarets for Performance Art to build up more shock value in their art pieces. After
that, the art community switched their attention to Surrealism movement and
Bauhaus which peaked at the time and Performance Art seemed to die down for a
couple of decades later on.

The next period of Performance Art was called “Post-war”, due to the style’s second
burst happening after World War 2. After experimenting with countless ways to
approach the Performance Art, artists finally took on a new perspective and had their
hands on photography and films. This allowed the art of performing to be recorded,
documented and performers were no longer required to make their appearance in
every single exhibition that includes a performance. It was also during this time frame
that the trend of Body art became widely accepted and was used by artists to a great
extent, especially in France. During the late 1950s, the participation of visitors in
artists’ performances was believed to be vital – blurring the line between an artwork
and the audience.

Throughout the years of the 1960s, artists were prone to switch their attention to
fighting for equality and feminism, along with protesting against colonization and
wars. Female artists soon took this opportunity to raise their voice about sexuality and
were prone to using their bodies as a tool for performances. After that, Performance
Art also became one part of the Fluxus movement – during which people want to
destroy the borderline of “high art”, showing that anyone can create art and art can
be born under any circumstance. This change of aesthetics is otherwise known as the
Performative Turn – proving Performance to be the paradigm of Contemporary art.

After its growing period, Performance Art finally got its own title by early years in the
1970s, separating from just being one method to portray arts. From then on, artists
continuously try to incorporate technology and various techniques in Performance
Art, making its reputation lasts even as in this day and age. Consequently,
Performance Art is now known as a branch of the Contemporary Art movement,
representing various life concepts. At the presence, Performance Art is no longer at its
peak because many young artist

Due to its uniqueness from combining a wide range of artistic forms, Performance Art
is seen as a continuous contemporary style that evolves along with the timeline. As a
result, the whole Performance Art genre is broken down into a few main categories:
Action, Body art, Happenings, Endurance and Ritual. However, a few artists had
broken out of style and performed for different reasons, basing on other beliefs in
arts.

The first concept is Action, which sprouted from the Action paintings in the
beginning. The name of the style indicates a wide range of conceptual activities.
Hence, performers also have their own ways and understanding of what is considered
Action art. This branch of style proved that any type of activity, no matter how or why
it happens, it can constitute a performance.

The second concept of Performance art is Body art. This is where artists themselves
acted as living sculptures and overall, use their body as an art medium – whether
using performers’ bodies as canvas, brushes or other objects that are parts of a project
in the presence. Creators portray their bodies as a work of art and at the same time,
the embodiment of art. For this art style at the time, artists oriented the audience
towards nudity, which stands for authenticity. Female creators also participated in
order to protest on how women’s naked bodies were portrayed under the name of
traditional high art.

Happenings is the third concept of style under the Performance Art genre. This style
particularly peaked in the 1960s and was heavily under the influence of the Dada
movement with its name being coined by Allan Kaprow in the 1940s. Happenings’
performances require the audience to participate while everything is tightly planned
beforehand. However, one signature trait of this concept is that no one actually
knows what will happen, and everything just happens in its natural way. Performers
will do their assigned work and are always ready to improvise in case anything
happens. This idea of art continues to challenge the idea that all art must stay in one
place and cannot change.

Follow after Happenings is the concept of Endurance, which is considered an

important segment of performances. As such, artists continuously challenge
themselves to test their boundaries of sanity, exploring into the depth of human
issues. Such endurance is created for artists’ desire to show the cruel, violent side of
wars – even when it has ended. Overall, this art branch focuses on human’s freedom,
the weak people’s oppression against society and submission in front of power.

The last concept of Performance is Ritual – the part that a number of artists focus on
in hope to bring back the sacrificial, mysterious feelings that arts had back in the old
days. Other artists, however, wanted to demystify art and bring it closer to everyday
life of the audience, transforming it into something familiar instead.

Performances can portray many concepts at once, because of that, these Conceptual
artists do not draw the borderline between what concept their carriers will dedicate
to. One of the famous artists who participated in the prime time of Performance Art is
Allan Kaprow – an American artist, who played a big role in the growth of Happenings
style in Performance Art genre. His Happenings performances is seen as a
spontaneous course of action, which also included the participation of visitors.

This Happenings performance is known

as “18 Happenings in 6 parts”, which was
held in 1959. During the performance,
the audience are invited to act out a
number of tasks provided with
instructions. As such, visitors then try to
complete what they were asked to do,
which is completely unpredictable of how
they did it altogether.
 “Fluids” is a performance that Kaprow
set up in 1967, California. He tried to
build rectangular structures made with
ice bricks and then intended for it to
melt away as the ice slowly turned into
fluids. This Happenings performance
included the act of building and
watching the ice melted away,
indicating the fact that even when the
art object no longer exists, it has now
turn into water that reaches other
people.

Yoko Ono is a Japanese artist born in 1933 – had operated a number of performances
for the visitors to interact with her. She spent the 1960s of her life to create many
controversial performances. After that, her works are displayed at multiple galleries
around the world throughout the early 21st century.

“Cut Piece” (1965) is a performance

where Yoko Ono sat alone on the
stage, wearing a suit with a scissor
positioned in front of her. Throughout
the whole performance, visitors are
suggested to cut a piece of her clothing
and when done, they can keep it. Many
took a piece of her skirt while others
cut her bra’s strap.

This performance is called “Bed – in”

(1969) and is also one of the Action style
of Performance art, which happened
during the artist’s and her husband’s
honeymoon. Visitors who were notified
of the performance was first expected a
course of sexual actions, acted out by
the 2 artists. However, later on when
already presented at the place, people
soon realized that this is an international
campaign, fighting against wars with the
slogan “WAR IS OVER—if you want it”.
Following after Yoko Ono is Hannah Wilke, an American Conceptual artist who
constantly fought for equality and used her body as an art tool for most of her
works. It is safe to say that she had dedicated her life to the form of Body art. She
explored the female stereotypes that society had about women and thus showed
her disapproval towards women’s objectification.

“Hello Boys” (1975) is a performance

under the form of Video art, which
lasted for 12 minutes. In summary, this
Body Performance demonstrates how
the image of women are sexualized
under the influence of the male gaze.
The video also showed her performing
a number of provocative gestures while
seemed to be trapped in a fish bowl –
presenting the fact that she is the
subject of the performance, as well as
the object used in for the performance.

The next piece here is named

“Intercourse with…”, produced by the
year of 1978 and is also a performance
displayed under the form of a video.
Throughout the 27 minutes, Wilke posed
as a protagonist with phone recordings
being played in the background. It is then
showed her gradually stripping off her
clothes, revealing her body’s being fully
covered with the other people on the
phone’s names. She then proceeded to
wash off the names until they completely
disappear. It is speculated that this
demonstrates the relationships between
humans and how the protagonist of the
performance deals with them.

Nobuyoshi Araki is a Japanese artist who was born in 1940 and is still pretty active
during the recent years. He is famous for erotic photographs of women’s bodies that
demonstrates the resistance of women when being put under circumstances. Not
only the performers must challenge their own endurance limit, his photographs also
showed the cruel, dark side of Japanese standards on women.
 This photograph of a performance is
called “67 Shooting Back”, which was
held in 2007. Here it is clear to see a
woman wearing Japanese traditional
clothes with her whole body being tied
to the bed. This demonstrates
women's resistance against the female
traditional role model and focuses on
the concept of Body art. The
background also seems to indicate the
often-unseen side of the Japanese
sexual film industry.

“Plastic Jungle Polaroid” (1995) is a

photo of doll’s naked bodies which is
positioned in a background that acts
out the scenery of a jungle. It is
described that this is a performance
put on by the dolls, rather than
humans like the rest of his
Performance Art projects. As such, it
demonstrates an eerie feeling when
looked at because of the doll’s lack of
emotions.

Overall, Performance Art is one interesting conceptual movement that continues to

grow over time, with the subject ranging from spiritual purposes to things that
happen right in the presence. It is believed that museums and galleries gradually
restage performances from time to time because of the conceptual characteristics
of Performance Art.

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