So my first elective meeting. Performance Art.
Questioning whether this elective was for me or not, after hearing the scary tales of having to get up in front of the class and bearing all, i manned up and went to the lecture.
Mark McGowan showed us some of his clips from the news to introduce us into what kind of performance art he does. I've heard about him before and seen some of his videos on youtube before, and its the kind of stuff that is a bit of a laugh but has purpose and political reasons for it and that stems from a really good idea. i.e. leaving a tap running for a year to advocate awareness of water wastage.
]
The one thing he told us to come away remembering was
'The power of performance lies in it not really being there' Peggy Phelan
Meaning that events in your lives exists only in the stories that you tell about them. The real is no significance whatsoever.
Events get changed through stories that you tell, your own and other peoples imaginations distort what really happened whether it be by accident or on purpose - the more you exaggerate your story the more you start to convince yourself that its true.
He talked about event theory, which is something that i will look into. And about how trying to preempt an event is foolish, not only for performance art but from day to day things such as meeting for breakfast or breaking up with a partner. There are so many variants that could happen that you are unable to prepare for so its not all about planning and the before part.
The bit that i was scared about, i was glad he addressed as shame. This is a shame based art work, putting yourself out there to be judged. Shame is an emotion which he went on to explain, similar to jealousy, is all consuming and something that you want to run away from. It is a feeling that you need to become comfortable with and become empowered by that. Take criticism and don't shy away from it.
We have been asked to create a film with the brief // Become an animal. Only 1 to 3 minutes which we can then upload to youtube and show to the class in two weeks time.
I want to create something with some sort of meaning and political background, something emotionally engaging. Just not something that is a joke, and stupid for the sake of being stupid.
Also we have been asked to researched a performance artist that is relevant or that we find a particular interest in so that we can create a class art history with the photocopier in 2 weeks time.
Advice from mark
-Don't hurt yourself or other people,
-You don't have to be dangerous,
-Don't be inspired by Alexander Brener
Im excited to see how I can take little bits from this elective and see how it changes the way i think about my own work.
http://www.artshole.co.uk/markmcgowan.htm