A Haze called Performance Art

A haze called Performance Art :

(2012)

Before I begin to elucidate about Performance Art practice, in an attempt to build it as a definition, I must express the fear that while I am doing so, some artist or the other out there, would be on his/her toes/hands/head or body etc tying to break even that sheer idea of a mould. Performance art then can be perceived just as an amoeba, changing form and structure every passing moment, where even the time that has lapsed, becomes a fueling factor. It is this very evasive nature of this field of art that makes it inter-disciplinary and thus, its scope of inclusiveness is huge.

Few months ago I had read somewhere that some people think of “Performance artists as bad actors” who desperately try to perform. I do not believe it is entirely wrong but in performance art, there are no bad actors.

Nevertheless, Performance Art does not seem to be a business of fooling around. I would rather describe Performance Art as an art practice that is highly “conceptual” and “experimental”. Peter Szondi, tells us of the history of drama in terms of a historical dialectic of ‘form’ and ‘content’. But since drama is a time bound construct, and prone to decay, there emerged ‘crisis of drama’ around late nineteenth century. Through the movements of Naturalism, Existentialism, and Expressionism etc. were attempts made to rescue or perhaps evolve the drama on newer lines of content.

So is it all in the concept? Frazer Ward in his essay, Some Relations Between Conceptual And Performance Art (1997) states that conceptual art does not entirely mean the "Concept" and it runs the risk of being confused with "Intention". He adds that " while the rationalism of conceptual art  might have been intended by a number of it's practitioners to demystify the conditions and the language of aesthetic experience so that it became less elitist while noting the hostility of the audiences, particularly "the non art" audiences to conceptual art. herein, he tells us lies the limitation of conceptual art. The audience has to be a trained one, only those viewers who have some form of initiation into it can fully appreciate it. He mentions Chris Burden's work Shoot  and describes in details Vitto Acconci performance called Step Piece, which Ward says is "post Cartesian abstract perceptual rationality". He writes while concluding his essay that Conceptual art undertook the removal of traditional elements of aesthetic expression in art. Yet the languages that it uses confines it and traps it in conceptualism.

Hans Thies Lehmann’s study of the Post-dramatic theatre that dared to look beyond the Aristotelian model, and thereby was capable of imagining theatre without drama. Post-Dramatic must not be confused with the Post in Post-modernism. Lehmann especially mentions Antonin Artaud’s works and texts like Theatre and it’s Double as being huge influences to  But we can try to trace down the evolution of post-dramatic through movements like the live art and performances of The Fluxus events. Therefore, we can zero-in on one thing, that each practitioner of performance art has a separate language, grammar, medium, tools, etc to develop his or her own brand of Performance Art. Of course, even in the presence of such utopic idea of artistic liberty and individuality, Performance art does not attempt to de-individuate itself from the Other, who may or may not be marginalized.

When Marina Abramovic performed the Artist is Present for months altogether, at the Museum of Modern art (MoMA) of New York, she led the spectator into the nihilistic landscape where they even fear encountering something they do not understand, like a suppressed emotion. Even when, in another performance, she allows the audience members to do anything they wish to her body, while accepting the sole responsibility for the consequences, danger and pain then become the deliberate limitlessness and unpredictability of the human behavior. Marina is constantly challenging her own body as a field of political unfoldings as her attack usually is also on the masculinist war mongers.

Marina in The Artist Is Present.

Peggy Phelan notes in her essay called Marina Abramovic: witnessing shadows, that similar works were performed by Marina in performance called The House with the Ocean View, were she lived in an art gallery for 12 days without, interacting, speaking or writing anything or to anyone. Phelan compares the work to Andy Warhols work called Shadows and states that the magnanimity of Warhol could be seen in Marinas House. This she adds to the genre of live art and says that "in live performance the potential for the event to be transformed in unscripted ways by those participating and the artist makes it more exciting to me". She adds that in Marinas works occilates between ethical and the aesthetic thus making it more striking. She mentions RoseLee Goldberg having stated about Abramovic's work as being a mediation between vastness of intent, cause and meaning.

Or with Orlan, the French performance artist trying to ironically ape the famous Mona Lisa through repeated plastic surgeries, similar possibilities involuntary. Orlan stages her operations with texts, the props, music and dancers complete with costumes for herself and the surgeons operating upon her. But never for a moment does she become a passive object that is being constructed or destructed as one can see her giving instructions to the dancers around her. She is not the passive female patient being operated upon by the male medical practitioner. She indulges in cosmetic surgery specifically to establish the peculiar irony of the medical sciences in relation to the feminist values. Pain becomes an important instrument for her performances, as she is in constant denial of it throughout and after the surgery.

A point that we should now look at is the factor of women performance artists and their methods employed. Even Peggy Phelan tends to spiritualise Marina's performance works. So, what is the route we are heading towards in stating such notions about performance art, especially with women at the helm. Perhaps, at least regarding the feminine, Luce Irigary's conceptions of the woman, as inherently spiritual and thus there is a distinct female subject position that needs to be understood. This essay will illustrate some of the male performance artists from, both international and indian in a way to understand that perhaps it is the feminine drive that pulls the distinct female subject position in their works. And this find a resonance in Felix Guattari's work called Becoming Woman. He states that as a way to address everything marginalised, 'becoming  woman' can be one. In following illustration, whe male performance artists, and some who refuse to be categoried into a gender will be discussed, illustration, perhaps, the point of Becoming Woman.

Franko B another Performance artist based in London says that he refuses the tag of “live-art” to describe his works. He emphasizes that his performances are based on his visual understanding and improvisations. Franko, through his website announces “In the last 20 years or so I have developed ways of working to suit my need at that particular time, in terms of strategy and context, by using painting, installation, sculpture, photography, video and sound”. In one of his widely exhibited works, “I Miss You”, at the Tate Museum, London, he walked up and down the ramp naked and painted in white pigment, while his arms bled slowly from his wrists creating a trail of blood on the ramp he walked. This work was to provoke the audience into shock and tears. There was huge audience turn-out and Franko wanted the audience to question and ask themselves if merely being in a museum structure inspecting an artist’s work held them from weeping or showing sympathetic emotions, as they merely sat there still and perplexed. Other than these artists that have been mentioned above, one of the earlier and most famous Performance Artists is Yoko Ono, and her work called “Cut Piece”. This particular work has become an ‘inspiration’ of sorts for several other performers, appropriating her metaphor of cutting he dress with a pair of scissors, in some way or the other.

During later 2010, ART India- a leading Art magazine covering the currents and under-currents in Indian art scene, carried a full feature issue, dedicated to Late Rummana Hussain(New York based photo-performance artist), dealt with Performance Art in India. No wonder then, Performance Art had arrived, although not so pompously on the Indian shores. There can be no denying that there have largely been European and American influences in developing its ground here. But one aspect that we must keep in mind is that the form of Performance Art, as there is none fixed, dabbles in the critique of especially western imperialist influences. Such influences then can be molded into solid constructive art practice in India. The Editor of ART India, Abhay Sardesai, notes that it has only been during the late 1990’s that Performance Art has been able to emerge in India due to some of it’s dedicated practitioners. He also emphasizes that the Indian performance artist has now been able to come out of the closet and engage his/her own physical body as the object and the instrument of art work which precisely edges upon myriad conceptual levels. One also needs to become conscious of the fact that, the initiators of Performance Art were basically from Visual Art backgrounds, who began to realize that the medium of canvas and paints was becoming obsolete for emergent art practice. So did the unfathomable distance between art, art-maker and the spectator. The new artist wanted to break these boundaries and create works that would not remain so distant from the on looker. In such scenario, many artists like chose to represent their works through the medium of photography and installation art. Others chose to take the road of multidisciplinary art practice, including their own bodies as part of art work.

Bhupen Khakhar as James Bond, Mr. Universe and

the Lover Boy from the Made for Each Other couple.

Photographs by Jyoti Bhatt

 

Pushpamala N, as Fearless Nadia to the Rescue(left) and Bharat Mata(right)

Tejal Shah, “The Incidental Self”

Some of the earlier Photo-performance artists are Bhupen Kahakar, Pushpamala N and Tejal Shah. These artists posed in front of the camera and what came out was properly visible physicality of their bodies and selves in full materiality. But there work cannot, in rightful terminology, be called performance art because eventually they are producing photographs or visual slides. Later artists like Monali Meher, who has even worked with Marina Abramowicz and is now based in Amsterdam, has been working on the theme of her self representation, working mostly in a art gallery set-up, and between the spectators.

Contemporary Performance artist Inder Salim, originally from Kashmir, has lodged his name in list of artists who have been doing very provocative and radical art. Salim also started off as a visual artsit in the capital, but he soon realized that it is an expensive medium, and the modes of canvas and photography were becoming redundant, at least for him. One of his most widely known works is DIALOGUE WITH POWER PLANT'S SHRILL ACROSS A DEAD RIVER  where he amputates a part of little finger of his hand and throws it into the dying river Yamuna. He says that his concerns are environmental, political, communal and through these will lead towards the cultural. This work by Inder Salim got wide coverage by media, and some critics even discarded him as being a sensationalist. But, says Salim, it is this very feeling of utter disgust that he wants to evoke in the viewers of his art, which must translate as disgust towards environmental degradation.. Some of his other works include Art Karavan(2010) that was a caravan of artists from small Indian regions and foreign artists, from every genre, who collaborated together and travelled the whole belt on rail from Kolkata to Srinagar in Kashmir, stopping in between cities to conduct workshops and art projects with local people.

Somehow, after taking a look at most of the performance artists in this paper, one can realize that a performance artist, tends to defy the notion of industry that in involved in bringing up a theatre production. Usually, than not, and largely in the work areas of the artists we looked at, they work individually, and prepare in solitude to garner a certain different type of physical and mental energy, the components which help them steer through their performances. Performance Art, takes a lot from playfulness of daily life and rituals. But Lehmann’s account of the post-dramatic theatre in relation to Performance Art tells us that it must not be confused with J L Austin’s conception of Performativity. Here, one point we need to possibly, ponder upon is that not many Performance artists who have gained prominence, come from a background in dramatic theatre. Probably, the actors of theatre drama schools learn so much that, therefore, one can realize that to become a performance artist one needs to unschooled and unlearn the modalities and methodologies of conventional art practices.