I'm reading Liveness: Performance in a Mediatized Culture, Philip Auslander, in preparation for Contemporary Performance Theory and the Practice of Art, which begins Monday morning.
The Winter break between semesters goes by so quickly and then I'm left wondering what I accomplished during that much-needed time away. Here are some things I did:
-Wrote two grant proposals to Tufts: one for travel fund grant for presenting my work in North Carolina on March 18, as part of Local Histories: The Ground We Walk On and one for travel fund grant for research in Berlin in February
-Wrote a performance proposal for Anti Contemporary Art Festival in Finland
-Worked on a new on-going project that I plan to focus on this semester, involving performance, media and an interactive component, and continued work on Unpacking Vocabulary
-Bought a much-needed new laptop and researched HD video cameras
-Researched and created itinerary for Feb 10 - Mar 2 travel in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Berlin, Glasgow, and Manchester
At the Mint Museum in Charlotte, North Carolina, I saw four videos by Janet Biggs. I didn't know her work before and was happy to come across it. Her videos often feature athletes performing extreme feats, paired with singers or musicians. From the exhibition brochure: Examining themes of speed, precision, personal discipline, gender roles, spectatorship, and calculated risk, her videos capture the athleticism of performance juxtaposed with danger. A common thread within her subjects is their willingness to undertake extraordinary risks—even brushes with death—in pursuit of the sublime.
Other work at the Mint that I found interesting: several Ed Ruscha paintings, Tom Hunter's photograph, Bounding Buddhist Rushes to the Rescue of Neighbor's Pet, inspired by local newspaper headlines and art historical references, and Sioban Hapaska's sculpture, Perpetual. I had only previously known Ruscha's work, so it was exciting to see interesting work by artists new to me.
I finished reading:
The Radicant, Nicolas Bourriaud
The Performativity of Performance Documentation, Philip Auslander (published in Project MUSE)
Performativity, James Loxley (Chapters 6 and 7)
And I poured over a pile of books on these artists, most of whom were recommended in my Review Board):
Erwin Wurm
Urs Fischer
Janine Antoni
Gina Pane
And researched on line (all of these artists recommended in my Review Board):
Mike Parr
Valie Export
Rudolf Schwarzkogler
Joseph Beuys
Gunter Brus
Alastair McLennan
Jill Orr
Sheree Rose/Bob Flanagan
And I have on deck, Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals by John Gray, which was a suggested read from Marcus Coates whose performance work I admire.
Yesterday I bought Erwin Wurm: The artist who swallowed the world.
